


Curse of Osiris

by nevermind_sanity



Series: Sanity's Adventures through Destiny 2 [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Sarah is tired, everyone is getting sick of vex shit by the end, hey sarah are you ready for your past to bite you in the ass?, sagira and ikora fight like siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 19:38:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevermind_sanity/pseuds/nevermind_sanity
Summary: Let's take a Journey through CoO and develop a certain someone





	1. O Sweet Child of Mine

    It started with a Nightmare.

    She was used to getting them lately. She could hardly do any work without sneaking in a nap because of them. They all seemed similar, all of them surrounding the colossus that was Savathun or that sneering witch, but this one was different. This one was not the deep seas of Titan or in the clutches of space. This one took place in front of an entrance to a place she had no name for.

    The sands of Mercury swept by her as the entire planet groaned under the damage that had been done by the Cabal. She could feel something beyond the gate before her, something that was beyond anything she had known before.  Up the stone stairs to the triangle entrance she could see the blue squares that marked it as Vex technology on the outside. Carefully she placed a hand on the force field that allowed her through. Walking past the blue of Vex technology she came to a long hallway. There she could see Sarah, of all people, standing beside her ghost. Her ghost however seemed quite different from usual. She could see extensions of light coming off of it, and when she spoke, she sounded very different from the timid but very caring ghost.

    “We must… stop….otes…” was all she could hear from that ghost as Sarah ran down the hallways through the next portal. She decided to run after the hunter, albeit foolishly, to see what was going on, and who were they talking about.

    On the other side was nothing like Gale was expecting. Here she was in a small quaint home. The blue carpet, the leather couch, the oak coffee table, it seemed like something out of one those Golden Age movies. She looked behind her and saw the portal had been replaced by a wooden door, and there was another one on the other side of the room.

    “Excuse me!” Gale looked down to see a tiny girl, no older than two, precariously standing on two feet. She never worked with a child that old yet, and didn’t catch on that it was extremely odd for her to be saying not just words, but coherent sentences. Then again, dream logic ruled here. What stuck out however what the child had striking blue eyes, dark curly hair, and something about her nose reminded her of Sarah. No, something about her facial structure in general…

    “Have you seen my mommy?” she asked.

    “N…No…?” Gale stuttered and knelt down. “Who’s your…”

    There was a sound of static. Gale let out a shrill scream and fell on her behind as she watched the child’s face seemingly start to melt. Her eyes turned pitch black and started to bleed out tar. When she spoke, it sounded like there was a second voice there, and more of that disgusting oil dripped out.

    “WHERE’S MY MOMMY?” she asked again, but louder, and swaying about. Gale started to scramble away from her. She heard the sound of doors locking her in with this seemingly possessed child, which only made her panic more.

    “Stop! Please!” Gale cried put as she felt her back press up against a door. The child did stop, but only for a moment before turning around on her heel.

    “THERE’S MY MOMMY!” she shouted. Gale looked up and let out another shriek. There in the middle of the room sat Sarah, chained to the floor by her wrists and ankles. There was a collar around the woman’s neck that had a loose chain. The child picked it up and gave it a tug.

    “COME MOMMY, LET’S PLAY!”

   Gale could see the pain on Sarah’s face. She could see the tears rolling down her cheeks, how every time the child tugged she seemed to be in agony. This seemed to be some sort of torture for her friend, even if she wasn’t sure exactly the meaning behind everything.

    “STOP! STOP IT! YOU’RE HURTING HER! STOP!” Gale stood up and began to bellow at the child. She had a lot more backbone now that it wasn’t just her in immediate danger.

    “PLAY! PLAY! PLAY!” The child kept chanting and tugging. It pulled so hard that Sarah let out a terrible cry, unable to handle the pain anymore. Gale clenched her teeth together and grabbed the child, wrenching it off of that chain. She wasn’t sure what she would do after that, but right away she felt her tiny hands hit and push on her face

    “NO! NO! NO! NO! LET ME GO! YOU’LL BE SORRY!”

    “Sorry…?” Gale raised a brow before hearing a booming sound. Turning to her right and looking out the window she could see it: the Vex Mind behind the entire simulation, and the one her dream was trying to warn her about. Panoptes floated outside the window, its one eye seemingly piercing into her soul. She dropped the child, but the Mind already had a hand through the window, picked up Gale’s tiny frame and dragged her out.

    Screaming and kicking, she felt her body being slowly squeezed by the Vex. She could see the world around her was dark, dying, dead, and the only thing there was a sea of Vex that followed the Mind. They stared up at her as she struggled to get free, even though there was no point to struggle for her life in this world they made.

   And then she woke up, after Panoptes squeezed the life out of her.

   Her screaming woke up her ghost again. He turned on the light for her as she curled up into a ball looking frantically around in her room. Every time she woke up form one of these horrid dreams she ended up like this. It was still better than the panic attack on the first one, but this wasn’t exactly the best improvement either. She would sit there holding onto herself as tight as she could, trying to remind herself that it was a dream, and she was in her room, and nothing was wrong.

    She slowly relaxed after that, and Winter nudged against her cheek, “Bad dream?”

    “Yeah…” she mumbled.

    “Savathun? Xyer?”

    “No… someone else… And Sarah…”

    “Breathe Gale… it’s alright, it was just a dream.”

    Except, it was more than just a dream, as she would soon learn. It was a warning, just as Savathun was a warning. Panoptes was coming, the end of everything was coming, but Gale would not take center stage this time. No, this time is would be Sarah who would run the show.

    And it started with a tiny ghost shell.


	2. None Shall Pass

    Sarah’s ghost was used to her Guardian having strange habits. She didn’t have a name like some other ghosts. She would like one, but Sarah never named her, and she never could think of a name for herself either. Sarah seemed to not really care for her at times, she never wanted to talk, but the little ghost loved her very much. She would care for her Guardian as much as she could, but naturally there was only so much she could do.

    What she didn’t get was why Sarah wore so much red. She always painted that X on her face, and she dyed her armor red and black when she could. Even the woman’s lipstick was red. She had a nickname for a while, the Lady in Red, but it had been dropped in favour of ‘Huntress.’ After Ghaul went down, people recognized Sarah as one of the best, even though she had been under the radar for so many years. That hadn’t changed her habits, such as not speaking to her ghost or many others. There was only a select few people she dealt with, and the ghost found herself wishing she was one of them. She didn’t even know Cilka existed before Ash managed to pry that story out of her.

    Honestly, her ghost would be forever grateful for that Hunter. She had done much for the Guardian who had been spiralling downwards for years. Her ghost remembered the days where Sarah would hurl herself off of the wall in a drunken state, and then beg for her not to revive her ever again. They were painful, and the woman only stopped drinking where there wasn’t a drop left out in the field. Since Ash showed up it was better, but Sarah did still have a drinking problem, and still was very anti-social. Gale, Alexander, and Cid were also helping the problem, but it wasn’t enough.

    Something needed to change, and soon. The Hunter was still rather aimless. She had no plans after finishing the set up in the EDZ and helping people home. She still was dragging the same old weights around, wishing she could turn back the clock and see her baby’s face one last time. It was obvious as the Hunter walked out of her room she still was held down and back by the past. She remembered Cayde remarking that even for a Hunter, she really didn’t use her light. She never used invisibility, and very rarely she used grenades. The most she used was her bow, but everything else? Never.

     She figured it was because Sarah was still stuck in the past, unable to get out. She wasn’t able to embrace the Light, not until the past as a mother was shed.

     The Ghost and Guardian wander the wall together in silence. It was a rare moment now that Sarah was here, and awake during the day without Ash’s help. Ash normally would’ve been with them by now, but the Hunter was off planet with Alexander and Red: something about the Exodus Black being in trouble again from the Fallen. Sarah would’ve normally gone instead of one of the other two, but she had missed the start of the mission because she was out in the Wilds instead. So now all she did was sit on a bench and felt the breeze blow through. Her ghost wished she could know what was on Sarah’s mind, wishing she could talk to her.

    The ghost turned around at the sound of hurried footsteps. There behind them she saw Cid and Gale, rushing towards where Ikora usually studied outside. They were speaking in hushed voices. Sarah also turned a little before shaking her head a little and tuning her gaze back to the city.

    “Shouldn’t we… you know… see what’s going on?” she asked.

    “I get the feeling it’s business with Ikora. They’ll tell me later, I’m sure. I always get involved somehow.” Sarah coldly answered.

    “But what if…”

    “It’s not. Did you see their faces and the tone of voice they used? They’re not in trouble, just confused and probably a bit worried. Ikora probably needs them for some secret project or what the fuck ever.”

     The ghost sighed a little. Sometimes she wondered if Sarah really did care about those people. She had displayed multiple times that she cared  _a lot_ , but it was times like these when she seemed to be in a sour mood that made the Ghost question it a little.

    “Did you see the dark circles under Gale’s eyes?” Sarah suddenly asked. Her ghost tilted her shell a little, “She’s not sleeping again. It’s getting worse, instead of better…” Sarah sighed a little, “Poor woman… it must be hell.”

     The ghost gave a small nod and looked out towards where those two had rushed off to.

* * * *

    “Are you sure you’re ok?”

    Gale was certain she had heard that question asked by Cid far too many times. Ever since she woke up he could tell something was wrong with her. In truth, no, she really wasn’t quite alright. That dream bothered her a little, especially now that Ikora’s ghost had come to both of them and told them to rush over here as soon as they could. From the corner of Gale’s eye she had caught sight of Sarah, and it just reminded her of it.

   “I’m fine Cid. Just can’t seem to sleep as usual.” Gale replied, trying to wave off both his worries, and her own. It had to have only just been a nightmare. The little girl came straight out of an old Golden Age horror film, and her paranoid imagination twisted a Hydra to look like that Vex Mind that dragged her out the window. It was a dream.

    Right?

    “You know, if you wanted to talk about them…” Cid gently offered. She looked up at him and could see he was still worried, and really nothing she could say would ease it. Still, they had more pressing matters than nightmares.

    What a hypocrite she was.

    “It’s fine. I’ll be fine. I’ll tell you later ok?” At least that way he could know she would tell him, just not at that moment. That still didn’t seem to sit right with him, but he did finally stop asking about it.

    Walking into the Bazar and coming to Ikora’s study table, it was clear that she was very troubled. Her shoulders were slumped, and her hands were digging into the cloth of the table in front of her. She perked up a little hearing their footsteps and turned around to face them. Gale found herself biting her lower lip seeing the look on her face before she composed herself. Something bothered her, something very personal.

    “Gale, Cid, thank you both for coming.” Ikora managed to give them both a small smile.

    “Of course.” Gale replied with a small nod.

    “Your ghost seemed real worried. What’s going on?” Cid asked.

    Ikora glanced down for a moment, the lack of sleep showing in her eyes, before looking up at them, “There’s been a… development, on Mercury. Strange reports from the cultists living there.”

    “The Followers of Osiris?” Cid raised a brow, “Aren’t they always strange?”

    “Yes. Normally I would ignore their conspiracy theories… but one of my Hidden brought me…” Ikora stepped aside a little. On a stack of books behind her was a small ghost. Her shell was a very unique shape, with two free floating large points at her sides and a few small ones dotting the top and bottom.

    “A ghost…?” Cid asked. Gale walked up to it and took the little thing in her hands. She could sense Light was still in it. She wasn’t dead, not yet.

    “Her name is Sagira. I’ve known her for a very long time, along with her Guardian… Osiris…” Ikora sighed a little when she said Osiris. Gale snapped to attention at the mention of his name and Cid seemed to be a bit surprised.

    “This is Osiris’ ghost?” Gale asked, “But then… where is Osiris himself?”

    “We’re talking a man who was the Zavala before Zavala. Something big must’ve happened to separate him from Sagira.” Cid frowned and folded his arms across his chest.

    Ikora laughed a little, “Zavala wouldn’t like to hear you say that. He hates Osiris, and most people won’t even speak his name anymore out of shame.”

    “I imagine it wasn’t supposed to end that way.” Cid replied sadly.

    “No… it wasn’t.” Ikora sighed, “Since she was found, Vex activity had surged on Mercury.”

    “And you think Osiris is involved?” Gale asked.

    “He has to be. It can’t be a coincidence.” Cid shook his head a little.

   “I need to know what happened, even if the Vanguard want to forget him.” Ikora’s shoulders sunk and her gaze fell on Sagira, “I…I’m very well aware this is a bit of a personal issue… but I have a bad feeling about this. You two have been friends to me…” she looked back up at both of them, “…and I would greatly appreciate it, if you looked into it.”

    Gale smiled a little a nodded, “Of course. We’ll find out what happened Ikora, just so long as you keep us out of trouble. I’m sure Zavala won’t want us digging into this.”

    “Even if it’s a personal issue, I don’t mind looking into it for you.” Cid nodded in agreement.

    Ikora managed a small smile, “Thank you. Both of you. Take Sagira with you when you go to Mercury. The Followers of Osiris, the few who remain, might know what her presence means.” That smile then got a bit bigger as she folded her arms over her chest, “And for now, we keep things between ourselves. I’d hate to have to throw you off of this wall for heresy.”

    Cid and Gale both looked at her in a bit of fear, turning to look at each other, and then back to her, “U-Um… that was a joke, right?” Gale stuttered.

    Ikora chuckled a little, “That was a joke. As far as Zavala and Cayde are concerned, you two are heading to Mercury just to cull the herd a little. We’ll bring in the rest of your team if we need to for this job, but I’d like to keep it to as few people involved as possible.”

    “Of course.” Gale nodded, “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

    Quietly they left Ikora there. Gale summoned forth Winter to try to revive Sagira while they walked to vaults to grab their things. She was sure Ikora tried as well, but perhaps there was something that could be done still.

    “I don’t know too much about Osiris.” Gale admitted quietly to Cid, “I know he was Ikora mentor, the Warlock Vanguard, and got banished, but not much else. I’m not sure if you know more but…”

    “Not too much more I’m afraid.” Cid shook his head a little. “Ikora hardly talked about him. Every Guardian back then remembers him for heresy, and Civilians have forgotten him. I know he was the hero of 6 fronts, splitting himself into multiples to fight on all 6 front lines, and he became the Vanguard under Saint-14’s advice to the Speaker. Saint-14 was a powerful Titan back then and really close to the Speaker, treated him like his father. Osiris started neglecting duties, talked his own mind, and wrote books on the Vex. Unfortunately some civilians and a couple Guardians picked it up and decided it was their new religion, hence the Followers of Osiris. It blew up in his face, Speaker back then apparently was an ass, conspiracy theories went wild, and thus he was banished. He was huge on the Vex apparently, and was always looking for something called the ‘Infinite Forest.’ I don’t really know what that means though.”

    “People either say he’s a horrible person, or he was the greatest hero alive. I wonder which it is…” Gale mumbled as she transmatted her weapons out of storage and put them on her belt and back.

    “Honestly? I think he’s just a person.” Cid shrugged as he received his helmet from transmat and started to put it on, “People make mistakes, people are not perfect, no matter how hard they try to be. He may have accomplished great things, but he’s made mistakes and if I’m being perfectly honest…” Cid turned towards her and looked down at the shell Gale held in one hand, “I think he made a big one and got in over his head.”

    Gale nodded and little and then looked up at Winter, “Any luck?” she asked.

    “Nothing. Scans show the core is damaged which is preventing her from waking up. We’ll need a professional to fix it, but it’s risky.” He sighed.

    “We don’t have time for that. We need to find Osiris, and fast.” Gale shook her head, “Without Sagira, we both know what’s going to happen.”

    “We got lucky during the Red War. I don’t want to bet on Osiris getting so lucky.” Cid nodded in agreement.

    “Let’s put her in transmat with you for now.” Gale suggested. Winter gave a bit of a nod and shone a light down into her hand. Sagira dissolved into bits of light, and now was stored away. No one really knew how it worked, but so long as it kept the frail ghost safe, everything would be fine.

    They hurried to the hangar, Gale slipping on her helmet on the way there. It was clear that Ikora had already told Cayde and Zavala the reason they were leaving (well, sort of) since Cayde was expecting them there.

    “Listen, no pressure or anything, but if you see any trinkets, let me know ok!” Cayde told them as they came into the hangar.

    Cid shook his head, “You and treasure. Will you ever change?”

    “Hmmm, let me think about that.” The Exo looked for so a second before shaking his head, “Nope, doubtful.”

    “If we see something interesting, we’ll bring it back.” Gale replied. They started walking again, but his voice stopped them in their tracks.

    “Listen, I think I know what this is about.” Cayde suddenly piped up. Both of them turned around in mild surprise, especially as his voice lacked any sort of humor, “I’ve been getting weird reports on Mercury, stuff about Osiris. Look, he means a lot to Ikora. I know that, and I know big blue is still mad at him like everyone else, but all I’m going to ask is you make sure the old man is still alive ok? And if he is alive, he probably shouldn’t come back. It… wouldn’t be good for him or Ikora.”

    Gale gave a small nod. It seemed that Cayde had indeed caught on, “You won’t tell Zavala? I feel a bit bad going behind his back to do this but…”

    “Lips are sealed, and don’t worry about big blue. I’m just a lot more worried about Ikora. I trust you guys though to do the right thing. You always do. And uh…” Cayde glanced around for a second, “I’ll just try to keep big blue away from Ikora so you guys can work in peace. Don’t worry, I’m a really good distraction.”

    Gale laughed a little, “Indeed you are.”

    “One more thing, and this is reeeeeeaaally important, like, I may or may not win glimmer for this.”

    Both Warlocks folded their arms and frowned behind their helmets, “What is it Cayde?” Cid asked.

    “I know you’ve said no before, but between you and me, are you two actually dating? Cause Hawthorne and I have a bet going on and if you are…”

    “You can tell Hawthorne that you owe her whatever you two bet.” Cid replied in a bit of a stern tone.

    “Soooo I’ll take that as a no… Damn it, I was hoping to get her on a sparrow.”

    Gale shook her head, “We have to go Cayde. Go distract Zavala for a while.”

    “Yep, will do. Maybe I can convince Hawthorne to help. Good luck hunting!”

* * * *

    Mercury was a mess. They could see pieces of it still free floating in space, heading towards the husk of the Almighty. Upon entering the atmosphere, they could see what was called The Lighthouse, a hub that the Followers were currently using. There they saw a large gateway in front of it pulsing energy over the ground nearby. Both of them decided it was better to land a bit of a distance away, just in case there was something wrong.

    “Welcome to Mercury Guardians. The signs told me that you would come.” A voice over the radio spoke to them as they went past the Lighthouse. Cid recognized the voice. There had been a Follower of Osiris back at the Reef. He had travelled around, trying to spread the word of Osiris to everyone, turning research into religion. Cid never bothered to listen to that rubbish. The only thing he had was the Trials of Osiris, and he hardly had time back then for that.

    “Brother Vance, right?” Cid asked.

    “Ah, I recognize that voice. It was you who did that favour for the Queen, and who stopped Oryx’s army. I’m happy to know you remember me.”

    “You kept trying to convert me into your fanatic religion, I tend to remember things like that.” By now they had landed their ships and were climbing out. Charon was out and about so they could hear the conversation.

    “Ah, so you still do not accept the Word of Osiris. Perhaps your friend here would say differently.”

    “Um… no thank you. I’m not a religious type.” Gale tried to politely turn him down.

    “Such a shame.”

    “Hello? Is this working?” Ikora’s voice suddenly rang through the comms, “I never use this channel so…”

    “We can hear you.” Gale confirmed with a small nod. They decided to start walking towards the Lighthouse while they all conversed.

    “Good. I can see Charon’s location now. You’re near a large Vex gate. Osiris spent years studying it, convinced it was the gate to the Infinite Forest. According to him, it was one giant prediction machine. That might be your best bet at finding him.”

    “Ikora Rey!” Vance suddenly piped up. He sounded like an overenthusiastic fanboy, “Osiris’ greatest student!”

    “Brother Vance… Osiris’ greatest… fan.” Ikora sounded a mix of uncomfortable and irritated. Both Warlocks couldn’t blame her.

    Gale found herself taking a moment to look at her surroundings. They were on an upper shelf of a cliff made out of Vex technology. The sands of Mercury blew about them from the tops and down into the abyss below. She could see floating platforms with marching Vex, going who knew where, and portals in strange places. Considering how their gravity defying platforms phased in and out of existence over the canyon however, she wasn’t about to question it. Trying to understand the Vex was like hitting your head against a wall repeatedly.

    She noted though that unlike Nessus and Io, there were statues of Vex around. Every now and then they would come across one that was carved into the stone. One would think that creatures who want the world to be reduced to a great machine would hold no purpose for art, yet here they were. Perhaps this really was their hub here in this solar system, and this was their way of showing it.

    “Hey Gale.” Cid stopped for a second and she did as well. In front of them she could see a round orb embedded into the ground emitting some sort of energy in a direction, “Ever wondered what it’s like to fly?”

    “Um… sometimes, especially seeing you do it.” Gale admitted, “Why do you ask.”

    “Well, ready to find out in a way what it is like?” He offered his hand. She tilted her head a little before taking it. They both stepped onto that orb and suddenly felt their bodies being pushed right into the air. She let out a squeak in shock at the sudden movement and pulled herself close to her friend. She didn’t dare to look down at the abyss they were flying over. She could gracefully float around for a while, but this was completely different. It was scary suddenly being thrown into the air. She suddenly felt them slow down, and felt a surge of Sol beside her. He was slowing them down a little before they hit the ground on the other side.

    “You ok?” he asked as they landed. She nodded a little.

    “I see now what you mean.” She nervously laughed, “I wasn’t quite expecting that.”

    “For some reason the Vex like to use those to get around sometimes.” He shrugged, “I’m not sure why.”

    “Well, it makes it easier for us to get around. And it’s kind of fun.” She admitted.

    Around the corner they could see the towering structure of the Lighthouse. There was one more of those transport orbs that would take them straight there. She held onto Cid’s hand, and they both jumped right on it. Now that she knew what to expect, it was far more fun the second time. She found herself smiling as they soared through the air towards a ledge next to the Lighthouse. Once they got close, they slowed themselves down a little for a lighter impact, and landed gracefully. She found herself giggling a little. She hoped there would be more of those where they were going.

    “I must say,” Vance suddenly interrupted, “I am so pleased that Osiris had brought you to me, his most humble servant.”

    “He’s not…” Cid started to say, but then sighed as he figured it wasn’t worth it.

    “Considering how you revere a man who questions everything, I’m surprised how well faith serves you.” Ikora coldly replied.

    “The Vex are on the march, and Osiris has not returned. Faith, is all I have.” Vance replied, sounding so resolute in a foolish notion.

    Gale looked out over towards the gate and found all of her nerves suddenly bundling together. The massive gateway looked exactly like the one in her dream. The sands of mercury danced around it in the same way, it was the same shape, same glow of squares…

    “Gale?” Cid suddenly asked, “Are you ok?”

    She hadn’t even realized she started to clutch her robes. She looked up at Cid and gave him a nod, “I-I’m fine. Just… nerves. We’re going to find Osiris after all.”

    Just nerves, she was fine. She had to be fine. It was just her imagination. She’s being paranoid. She had to be fine otherwise all of the terrible things she saw could be true. She was fine, not in denial, she was fine.

    Fine.

    The two of them floated down to the bottom. A light was slowly pulsing over the land, as if it was calling out to something. They could see down below that Vance was right, there were a number of Vex on the outside of the Lighthouse, all marching about like there was something large to attend to, to protect. Once their feet hit the ground, they took the first shot at them. The Vex were taken off guard, and the two Warlocks tore through them like paper. All the way to the gate there were Harpies and Goblins trying to slow them down, but they stood no chance against the Stormcaller, who went ahead of her friend to clear out the small army with a storm trance. By the time he caught up, there was nothing left standing, and they stood before the massive gate. The stairs leading up to it were slowly being eroded by the sand, and old tattered flags weakly blew in the wind.

    “Well…” He said, “I’m ready when you are.”

    Gale gave a nod. Up the stairs they walked, but when they took a step in, they felt their feet being kicked back. They looked at each other for a moment, before backing up and trying to take a run at it. It seemed to catch them for a moment, but then flung them right back out and into the air. Both of them let out a small scream as they suddenly fell down past the stairs and landed on their backs in the sand.

    “Ow…” Gale mumbled as she got up. Cid stood up beside her and started to brush himself off.

    “That could’ve gone better… but how do we get through?” he muttered.

    “I’ll bet Sagira knew. If only she was awake, she could help us.”

    “Osiris preserve us!” Vance suddenly shouted, “You have his ghost, Sagira?! Please! Bring her to me!”

    “And why should…?” Cid started to ask, but noticed it suddenly got dark. It was the middle of the day though, and the rotation of Mercury was completely off. Why was it suddenly…?

    “Um…Cid?” Gale asked and pointed at the squares floating in the air. From them, Vex came forth and manifested, but it was clear they were quite different. These Vex were black, with rounder shapes, and looked far more worn down.

    “What the fuck…?” Cid started to ask as he raised his weapon, “The last time I saw these Vex was the Vault of Glass. These things are from the future…”

    “Vex from the future coming to this timeline is probably really bad, isn’t it?” Gale asked.

    “It means there’s something big going on. And I get the feeling Osiris is right in the middle of it.”

    They opened fire on the marching army. These ones fell apart so easily under the rain of bullets. Time had not been very kind to these Vex. Something clearly happened to them in the future. Perhaps, Cid thought, they had a run in with Savathun, and the Taken energy had corroded them. It might mean that this happened on a distant planet, or it might have happened here. Though really in the end, all that mattered was they would be killed here and now. The future was far too uncertain to focus on why they were the way they were, and it made his stomach twist thinking about it.

    Blasting their way back to the Lighthouse, they could see a portal was needed to get in, but the Vex had it sealed off. In front of it stood a large Vex Mind, guarding the small conflux that kept the gate from working. Gale decided to take care of the smaller ones as she watched Cid summon forth his sword. He would take care of it, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

    It teleported forward, trying to catch the EXO off guard. Instead of smashing him into the ground however, it found itself stopping for a moment seeing him not there. It looked up to see wings of fire from the man’s back, and him already diving back down at it. The sword went through its head, but he knew that wouldn’t kill it. What really powered the Vex was their precious radiolaria in their torsos. Without eyes however, it was flailing about, shooting every which way to try and get him. He tore the sword out of the metal and wire, and turned on his heel on the Mind’s shoulder to plunge it into the chest. He could hear the fluid inside boiling, and he left the sword of fire in there to finish the job. He kicked off into the air again and landed a ways away from it as it toppled over. He heard a shot and looked up to see Gale had already destroyed the conflux, now that the mind was dead. Both the sword and the wings fizzled out for now, waiting for the next time they were needed.

    “If they’re calling everyone here, then that means we’re in trouble.” Cid said as soon as Gale caught up to him. They watched as the portal that lead inside powered up and gave a low hum.

    “Best case scenario it’s showing off new ideas… worst case scenario we’re dealing with another Calamity…” Gale sighed, “It never ends, does it?”

    “Sadly, it never seems to.”

    The two of them walked into the portal and came to a round room. Inside, standing next to a stack of books, and one opened one on a stand was a man in black and yellow. He wore a blindfold over his eyes, and the way he moved his hands about to feel where he was, he was clearly blind. There were a few others with him, one human, one Awoken, and two EXO, all staring at the two Guardians. On the walls, the symbol of the cult, the Eye of Osiris, and counters of stone circled the man in the middle.

    “Thank you.” He said. The voice matched Vance’s, so one could only assume it was him, “I don’t know what we would’ve done if Osiris did not send you to us.”

    Cid was about to say that Osiris did not send them, but decided it wasn’t worth wasting his breath. He did notice though that the rest of the Followers seem a bit frightened. They had every reason to be. They knew something was wrong.

   “In return,” Vance continued, “the Followers of Osiris can help you revive his ghost. I will give you the coordinates of our temple on earth. We have a relic there that may be the key. I will notify them of your arrival.”

    “Thank you Brother Vance.” Gale gave him a small bow. He might be a fanatic, but she decided to show respect anyways, “We’ll get her there as soon as we can.”

    “Excellent.” Vance turned around, feeling around for something, “Now that the Lighthouse is safe, we can prepare for Osiris’ return. All of the Lost Prophecies are coming to past.”

    He moved something forward, and the entire structure gave a lurch before rising upwards. It came to a stop on the top floor where they had a beautiful view of the gateway to the Infinite forest. The others shuffled off to desks and parchments on the floor that they had left behind.

   “We can’t leave them here.” Cid quietly said to Gale, “Those Vex are going to come back.”

   “Do you think they’ll leave?” Gale asked.

   “Honestly, no, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try. At the very least, I can stay here and hold the line.”

   “I’ll head back then with the shell. This sounds like a Hunter Job. In the mean time, I’ll try to get a hold of someone who can fix the shell if this doesn’t work. Which… honestly I doubt it will work.”

    “This relic might be something Osiris made in case something happened to Sagira. The question is does it work? I doubt he’s tried it.”

    “I suppose we’ll find out. I’ll fill Ikora in and we’ll get Sarah and Ash on this. Ash should be back by now.”

    Cid nodded, “Might as well let Alexander in on what’s going on. We’ll need him too.”

    “Yeah…” Gale turned her gaze out towards the gate, “This is a far bigger problem than we thought…”

    Perhaps if Gale listened to her own dreams, she would know exactly what was happening and realize this wasn’t just a bigger problem. This was involving everyone in the entire solar system.


	3. Sagira

    “So let me get this straight.” Sarah raised a brow at Gale. She, Alexander, and Ash all sat with her on some couches in a quiet spot of the wall, “We’re possibly dealing with another Vex Calamity, Osiris the asshole that didn’t help during the Twilight Gap as far as I’ve heard is probably part of this, and the fanatics say they have something to revive his ghost?”

    “Yes, that’s exactly what’s going on as far as I know. I feel like there’s even more to it though.” Gale replied.

    “Man, we really can’t catch a break.” Ash sighed, “Can the next end of the world event wait until after we’ve dealt with the first one?”

    “Apparently not.” Ghost translated for his Guardian, “Whatever the case though, we need Sagira so we can get into that Forest.”

    “I feel like going after this relic is a waste of time. We’re better off just having someone fix her.” Sarah shook her head.

    “Ikora says it might be worth looking into. She remembers that Osiris got a hold of some Vex technology and was working away at it. It was heavily modified, and she remembered it had Sagira’s shell shape embedded into it.” Gale folded her hands in her lap as she leaned back a little.

    “It might’ve been something for the ghost to control, not to revive her.”

    “It’s going to take a while to find someone willing to work on the core. It’s a delicate operation Most people will work with Ghost shells, but cores? That takes someone who knows what they’re doing.” Alexander explained.

  “Besides, could be a fun adventure.” Ash leaned back a little, “While Gale and Alexander try to find someone, we can go out to this place and perhaps even bring this thing back. Got to be worth something. Might have good info we can pull out of it to find out more about the guy and this Forest if nothing else.”

    Sarah sighed, “Alright, we’ll go out there. Can I see her shell?”

    Gale nodded as Winter came out of hiding. She held out both hands for the shell to be transmatted into, and then handed over Sagira’s shell to Sarah. The woman carefully held the small thing in her hands, noted the blast damage on the back of it. When her own ghost came out of hiding to place it into their transmat, she looked at it for a moment with a bit of worry. Sometimes it was easy to forget how fragile they were, and she knew very well what would happen without one. They had to get moving as soon as possible to reunite Guardian and Ghost before either were killed.

  “Well, might as well grab your stuff, I’ve already got mine. No breaks for me.” Ash stood up and stretched a little, “Maybe I’ll put on auto pilot and sleep on the way there.”

   “I thought you would’ve slept on the way back from Nesssus.” Sarah commented with a raised brow.

   “Not nearly enough.” Ash yawned as she stood up and started to walk back towards her ship. Gale and Alexander also stood up, knowing they didn’t have time to waste.

    “I’ll ask Amanda if she knows anyone. If anyone does, it would be her.” Ghost translated.

    “I’ll ask Cayde. He has connections and already knows what’s happening. Ikora already is filled in, so she’ll help you through there Sarah.” Gale instructed. The Hunter gave a nod and stood up, quickly walking over to the dorms to grab her Hunter’s outfit. She still thought it was a bit of a waste of time, but it was better than just standing around waiting to find someone.

    “Sarah…” her ghost piped up.

    “What is it?” Sarah asked as she opened the door to her room.

    “Why did you look at me like that?”

    “Don’t worry about it. Just thinking if something happened to you…”

    Sarah did care, she just didn’t show it sometimes. But the times she did show it warmed her little ghost’s core. She just wished she could help her Guardian more.

* * * *

    “Hey Sarah?”

    On the way over to the EDZ, Ash had been unusually quiet. Sarah had amounted to the hunter being tired, but the way her voice sounded when she spoke up made Sarah worry. Whenever Ash sounded serious, it was for good reason.

  “Yeah?” she asked, furrowing her brows a little.

  “When… when we deal with this mess and all… or when we get time, I need to talk to you. Alone. At the tower.”

    There was something Sarah needed to see, but Ash just hadn’t gotten the time to show it to her. More than anything the small girl wanted to put her friend’s demons to rest, but it was hard when they hardly saw each other outside of missions.

    “Is everything ok?” Sarah asked, worry lacing her voice.

    “Yeah! It’s fine! It’s just… you know…”

    “If you want, I can mute this for a while.” Ikora suddenly chimed through the radio.

    “No! It’s fine. It can wait.” Ash quickly insisted. As the ships started to drop them off in Trostland, Sarah wasn’t so sure.

    “Ah! Been a while Guardians! How have you two been?” Devrim’s voice was now over the comms as they started to run through. It was oddly quiet here, which most likely meant that the Fallen were stirred up somewhere else, which with their luck would happen to be in their way.

  “We’ve been good Devrim! You need any more of those cakes from Mark? I can get more!” Ash waved up at the bell tower, knowing Devrim was watching them.

   “Ah, thank you Ash, but I think I’m ok. You’ve been a real blessing, you know that? I’ve heard you’ve been busy at the Farm Sarah, and believe me, everyone there is grateful.”

  “Uh… you’re welcome? I… I guess?” Sarah awkwardly answered.

    “Hah! Charmed as ever. Anyhow, I heard Ikora on the channel earlier, and the Fallen all seemed to have drifted off somewhere. I assume you’re here to deal with it?”

    “Uh, yeah! Pretty much, yeah!” Ash lied.

    “Well then, good hunting out there! I’m going to go boil another kettle. If you have time, stop in for some tea.”

    “Will do! See ya!” Ash waved again and the two of them started to move towards the coordinates with Sarah’s ghost leading.

    “Just as well.” Ikora sighed, “We don’t need anyone else knowing what we’re doing. Devrim is well educated, and I’m sure he knows about Osiris.”

    “I doubt he has strong opinions on it.” Sarah shrugged.

    “I’m looking at these coordinates. Hawthorne’s scouts mapped that out during the Red War. There’s no temple there, just an old radio tower.”

    “I guess you take what you can get. They might have it all nicely decorated.” Ash suggested.

    The way there was very familiar at first to Ash. It was here where the first blight was when she ran the Lake of Shadows strike. There was no blight anymore thankfully, but there were a couple of parked heavy pikes for them to steal, and two very unfortunate Fallen milling about. One ended up with a knife to the face, and the other one was shot with Ash’s handcanon. Beforehand, there had been a path filled with rubble and debris, but that had since been cleared, and the way they took for the Lake of Shadows was now blocked off by broken cars and concrete. It looked like the Fallen had just shoved it all over.

    “So uh, Ikora.” Ash asked as she climbed onto the pike, “Judging from Gale’s story, are all the Followers as…” she cleared her throat, “passionate, as Brother Vance?”

    “You mean fanatical. Yes. They follow the idea of Osiris, but they didn’t know the man as I did. But…” Ikora sighed, “they might be our best chance at reviving Sagira.”

    “They’re idiots trying to raise a Guardian on a pedestal of Godhood or a prophet or a messiah. He’s none of those things and I doubt he’s trying to prove himself as one. He’s human, and humans fuck up. Guardians fuck up. They just ignore the fuck ups and think he’s perfect. It’s stupid.” Sarah replied.

    “Have you ever talked to them Sarah?” Ash asked as she pulled up beside the other Hunter who was messing around with the controls to her pike.

    “When I was younger and there were still a few hanging around that weren’t banished, yeah. I always thought the Traveler religious stuff was bullshit, and this stuff is bullshit too. You can’t count on Gods who will only react when they’re in danger. You can only count on people, and that’s a rare fucking thing too.”

    It was certainly something to think about as the two took off through the narrow and ruined streets. Ash was never a believer in the religious stuff either. A God didn’t need to prove itself. Even she knew that anything that was trying was mad or lying: usually both. The Traveler didn’t need to prove itself as a higher being, it just was, but the first time it ever showed signs of life in a century or so was when Ghaul was about to ruin everything. Since then it had done nothing. Of all the times it could’ve woken up it, it was only when it was absolutely certain its life was in peril. Sarah was certainly right on that point.

     Ash also was sure Osiris was not a God. No Guardian was. They had magical powers, sure, but they weren’t the biggest, baddest beings out there. They were constantly struggling in a war with many fronts, and their light, borrowed from a God, was the only thing keeping them alive. They were that God’s army, holding the darkness at bay. It was a depressing thought, actually.

   Yet in this second life she had been gifted with something she never knew she never had in her first. But, that’s a story for another time.

   She looked up at Sarah who was leading the way. She wondered how much time Sarah had to think on things like that in her long life. She wondered just how bad it really got for her, and how she alienated herself from everyone during that time. Now after the Red War, Sarah was still a recluse, but she at least would talk if you came to visit her. Sometimes it would stink of booze in that room of hers, and Ash would drag her out for some air. For the first while, Sarah didn’t sleep well. No one really did after the Red War, as nightmares would come looking for them, but Sarah seemed to recover the fastest with her vice. It wasn’t a good thing, Ash knew that, and something needed to change.

    She suddenly snapped to attention at the sound of shots being fired. The road was now going up a hill into a tunnel, and the Fallen have made a firing line out of it. A Fallen Walker tank was guarding the entrance along with a few foot soldiers. The Pikes were able to overwhelm any target with a barrage of bullets, and the Fallen who made them were no different. Even the walker would prove to be little challenge. Sarah had taken down one before, and knew that by knocking off the armor on the legs, it would stun it for long enough. Dodging side to side to avoid its canon, the girls cleared out the smaller targets first. They didn’t need to be shot in the back while they dealt with the Walker.

    Sarah stood up straight on her Pike and reached back for her sniper rifle. This thing which had long since served her felt so heavy in her hands now. She had been using it all this time, mostly to assassinate targets, but it had been so long. Ever since that perfect shot on Ghaul, it had been feeling off to her. It felt like it was time to let it go, but she had no other weapon to replace it with.

   There were a number of things she had that were like that.

    Nonetheless, she took aim and fired at a glowing part of the Walker’s leg. It suddenly gave a jerk and fell on its side, opening up a very vulnerable core. She looked over to Ash who already had her Golden Gun summoned. She watched her fire that shot, and it tore through the entire thing, leaving a massive hole. It let out one more cry before it completely collapsed on the ground and they were allowed through.

   “I feel bad for anyone having to live out here with these assholes.” Ash commented as they turned their pikes towards the tunnel entrance. It seemed to have partially collapsed inside, and who really knew how long it would stay up for.

    “Osiris would call it a trial. If his Followers can’t survive out here, they aren’t worthy to begin with.” Ikora simply answered.

    “Is that the Follower’s justification, or is that you still being pissed off at him?” Ash frowned a little, “Gale says he meant a lot to you, so why are you still mad after all this time?”

    Ikora didn’t answer that. They sped through the tunnels and could see the Fallen had made a small home here. House of Judgement Banners were up everywhere, and it made Ash a little nervous again. Cid had explained to her the significance of it, and the fact that these Fallen were no longer their allies was a really bad thing.

    The tunnels opened up, and sure enough behind pieces of scrap metal, there was an old rotting radio tower. It was swarming with Fallen now, all trying to scavenge what little they could, and surely going on a murder spree against whoever was in their way.

    “Huh, they didn’t even decorate it or anything, and the Fallen beat us here. Both not good signs.” Ash radioed.

    “That, is what faith in Osiris gets you.” Ikora coldly responded.

    “Do you want us to find this guy or kill this guy, like, which is it?!”

    Sarah decided to add nothing as she jumped off of the pike and starting shooting. It sounded like an angry child who begrudgingly still loved the parent they were mad at. It probably wasn’t very far from the truth. Osiris was that weird uncle everyone was mad at but the daughter still cares enough to send someone out there to make sure he was still alive and breathing. When Sarah thought about it like that, it made a lot more sense as to why Ikora was behaving the way she was.

    She could understand that. She might have been the parent had things been different.

    Climbing the old and rusting tower, they carved their way through the Fallen until they came to what used to be a maintenance elevator. It had since fallen to the bottom, and when the girls hopped down, they could see a ladder rope that had been cut on the floor. Down into the concrete below, their ghosts lit up their flashlights and they saw the carnage. There were bodies everywhere in the dark basement. There was little blood due to the nature of Fallen weapons, but it was clear they had all been massacred.

    “Fuck…” Sarah mumbled as she took off her mask and pulled back her hood, “Poor bastards. They didn’t deserve that.”

    “Ikora, they’re dead. All of them.” Ash radioed as she walked a little further inside. She opened a door to find a candle lit room full of more bodies. She quietly took off her own mask and pulled her hood back. As Sarah said, they didn’t deserve to be slaughtered here. They were fanatics, but they weren’t hurting anyone.

    Ikora sighed through the radio, “I was hoping that perhaps they might have survived. We’ll send someone out there to retrieve the bodies later. Is that piece of Vex technology in there?”

    Sarah stepped through the doorway, handing her mask over to her ghost to place into transmat. In the corner of the room she could see a block of Vex technology with candles lit all around it. Someone had placed a slab of some sort over it with the eye symbol, and indeed there was an imprint of Sagira in it.

    “It’s here.” Sarah replied. Her ghost wandered over with a slight tilt of her shell. Ash raised a brow as she handed Chie her mask and came closer to see what was happening.

    “Let me try something…” Sarah’s ghost mumbled as she transmatted Sagira into the indent. Her shell sat there perfectly, and Sarah’s ghost started to scan the strange piece of technology. “This is heavily modified. Someone put a lot of effort into…”

    Sagira’s shell suddenly started to glow bright and float up a little. Both Sarah and Ash raised their hands a little as they were suddenly blinded.

    “Wait! What’s happening?!” Sarah’s ghost shouted. They could see a beam of Light coming out of Sagira’s shell and seeping into Sarah’s ghost. “What is…?!”

    “…going on?!” a new voice cried out. The ghost blinked for a moment before looking around. There was now shapes made of Light around Sarah’s ghost, the same shapes as Sagira’s shell. The little ghost seemed rather confused at first as she looked all around. Both Hunter stared in shock, trying to process themselves what was happening.

    “Whoa! New shell? Who? What?” the ghost then turned around to look at the two hunters, “Did you two just put me in a strange machine you’ve never seen before? Who does that?!”

    “Sagira? Is that you?” Ikora suddenly radioed.

    “Ikora! You’re still around! This is great! Look, we gotta move, right now. Osiris is in over his head as per usual and…!” Sagira suddenly stopped and looked at the hunters again. “Wait, where are we? Who are you?”

    Being addressed knocked Sarah out her shock that quickly turned into anger, “Who am I?! What the fuck are you doing in my ghost?!”

    “Ok, anger. Should’ve expected that. Don’t worry about her! We’re, uh, sharing, right now. She’ll be back!”

    “Oh no, we are not doing this. We are not letting you possess my ghost!” Sarah shouted back, pointing at Sagira.

    “Can you think of any better solutions right now? I’m the only ghost that can get into that gate, and my shell is too damaged to use. If we’re going after Osiris and potentially stopping the world from ending, then this is the best thing we can do right now. I’m not exactly happy with the arrangement either, especially if you’re going to yell at me all the time.”

    Ash chewed a little on her lower lip. She didn’t like this idea either, but it was sounding like they were getting little choice in the matter. She looked over to Chie who seemed very uncomfortable and was drifting to closer to Ash and away from Sagira. Ash gently pulled Chie’s shell close and ran her thumb up and down the shell to comfort her a bit. Ash was certainly in the boat of not being alright with this situation and hoped this little arrangement would be over soon for the sake of Sarah’s ghost.

    Sarah let out a little huff, “We’re going to Mercury after we pick stuff up from the tower, finding your Guardian, and then you’re going to leave my ghost. Got it?”

    “I somehow don’t think it’s going to be that simple, but I promise I’ll leave her shell as soon as I can, alright?”

    Sarah said nothing for a moment, obviously still fuming over this. She did know however that they had no better options, so she let out a sigh and her posture fell a little, “…fine.”

    “Good, now we can do all of our introductions while we get the hell out of here.”

    Another consequence of this arrangement was that Sarah was now completely wrapped up in this entire mess. She wasn’t about to let anyone else have her ghost, so she would have to come along for the ride no matter what happened. Begrudgingly Sarah told Sagira her name, and Ash introduced herself as well. Not much was said between them though on their way back to the Tower.


	4. A Dark World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can the nex end of the World not wait for at least another year?

    “Oh… oh dear…”

    That was really all Gale could say when Sarah got her up to speed. Looking at Sagira now made her insides twist. She didn’t like how much of her dream was starting to come to pass, and it was really starting to bother her. For now though she shoved those worries aside in favour of trying to comfort the hunter.

    “Yeah, so this is now a thing.” Ash sighed, rubbing her eyes. It was clear she was tired, as she hadn’t really had a chance to stop and rest.

    “Well, hopefully not for long. I did find someone to repair the shell.” Gale replied, “And now that Sagira isn’t in it, I’m sure he’ll feel a lot more comfortable about doing this. It’s still going to take time.”

    “The sooner, the better.” Sarah looked at Sagira and held out her hand, “Might as well get him started now.”

    “I’m right with you on that one. This feels so weird.” Sagira replied and transmatted her old shell into Sarah’s hand. She then handed it over to the Warlock.

    “Alright, I’ll get it to him. You better take off for Mercury.”

    “Hey uh, not to be a bother but, can I skip this one out?” Ash asked as she rubbed as her back and neck, “I haven’t had any…” she let out a small yawn, “Decent sleep in a while…”

    “Yeah, go to bed. I’ll be fine.” Sarah told her, “Cid’s still at Mercury right? I can ask him for a hand.”

    Gale nodded, “He is. Last I heard he said he felt like he was hitting his head against a wall trying to convince those people to leave.”

    “Doesn’t he know that the best part about that is when you stop doing it?”

    “Sarah….” Gale shook her head, “These are people’s lives.”

    “I know, but if they don’t want to leave, we really can’t force them.” Sarah folded her arms, “All we can do is hold the line for now.”

    “I suppose there’s some truth to that.” Gale sighed, “We should get moving. I’ll talk to you later.”

    Gale then hurried off to find the man who would fix the shell. Ash gave a small wave before trudging off to her room to get some much needed sleep, leaving Sagira and Sarah alone there.

    “You know, I think I might actually like you.” Sagira piped up.

    “What makes you think that?” Sarah raised a brow.

    “There’s something about you that screams ‘I care but I’m a big grump.’ And of course the sarcasm.”

    “Ugh.” Sarah rolled her eyes and started walking towards the hangar.

    “And with that I rest my case.”

* * * *

    The sands of Mercury blew through Sarah’s cape when she transmatted next to the Lighthouse. Time had not been kind to the Vex structures here as the sand and wind slowly ate away at them. When she slipped through the portal into the Lighthouse, she could see the few followers that remained still milling about. She hadn’t seen those outfits in a very long time, and she wasn’t exactly happy to see them either.

    “A new set of footprints? Light? A Hunter?” Vance suddenly asked as he looked around.

    “Relax Vance, she’s a friend.” Cid called from the right side of the room. Sarah looked over and could see the EXO walking towards her. He stood out in here, being one of the only people not wearing the uniform. He carried his helmet under his arm as he rubbed at his temple. He seemed tired, and she was sure he was sick of listening to these people.

    “Has she come to accept the Word of Osiris?”

    “How do I put this so you’ll never ask me again?” Sarah glared at Vance, “No fucking way in hell.”

    He let out a ‘hmph’ before going back to reading the scripture with his finger tips. She motioned for Cid to follow her outside so they couldn’t hear them talk. He put on his helmet to go out and they both slipped through the portal.

    “So what’s been going on?” he asked as soon as they were both through, “Any luck with Sagira?”

    “You tell me. She’s now possessing my ghost.”

    Cid was silent for a second before responding, “She’s what now?”

    Sagira manifested right there and then, and he could now see what Sarah meant. He looked at both of them, very clearly angry. Sarah knew he would be, and she couldn’t blame him one bit. She had also given Sagira fair warning, but didn’t tell her the reason behind his anger.

    “Are you out of your mind?!” he yelled at them both.

    “We’ve already been over this.” Sagira calmly told him, “And we all agree we have no choice. Sarah already yelled at me earlier, we don’t like this arrangement, but we need to get into the Forest right now. Osiris saw something in there that terrified him. Nothing terrifies him. We need to find it, and we need your help. Sarah says you’re one of the best, and it takes the best to navigate that forest.”

    “Sagira is right.” Ikora radioed through suddenly, “I knew you wouldn’t like this Cid, but we really have no choice. Osiris could be anywhere and we’re heavily relying on Sagira to get us in and through. The last thing we need is for you two to get lost and never find your way out.”

    “Osiris is in there protecting us from the Vex. He needs us, he needs me! Without me he’s going to die! So please, can you set aside your anger and help us?”

    Cid looked at both of them being heaving out a sigh, “… alright. Let’s find your Guardian. The sooner, the better.”

    “Thank you Cid.” Ikora sighed, “I know you have strong feelings on possession.”

    “You don’t know the half of it.”

    “What, it’s not like you ever been possessed be…” Sagira suddenly stopped when Sarah lightly tapped her shell. Sagira looked over and could see Sarah’s arms were folded over her chest, and she didn’t need to see her face to know that she was glaring at her.

    “Oh… ok. I’m just gonna… shut up now…” Sagira mumbled and turned away a bit.

    “That’s what I thought.” Sarah said before starting to walk towards the gate with Cid right behind her. Sagira looked at him a bit sadly before flying off towards the gateway. She didn’t mean to stir up things that shouldn’t be stirred up, and didn’t dare to ask him what happened. Instead she led them up the stairs and stopped before the gateway. She scanned the door and the Forest seemed to resonate. The gate lit up a little brighter for a moment before returning to its normal glow.

    “Open sesame. Everyone ready?” Sagira asked as she turned to face the two Guardians. They gave a nod and stepped inside. This time nothing threw them back out, and instead they were greeted with a flash of white light. When their vision cleared, they could see they were in a long triangle shaped hall, only lit up by the portals at either end. Both the Hunter and the Warlock had to pause for a moment and look around. Dangling on the ceiling by a rope were more flags, and a statue was placed in the middle of the hall, but this time made of gold. As Sagira lead the way past it and into the next portal, they came into another dark room. Sagira lit it up for them along with Charon and they could see it was massive, full of confluxes and floating platforms. All of these shifted about slowly, but there was a clear way forward. They followed the path to a narrow set of stairs that went through the rock and to an upper level.

    “One thing I should mention guys,” Sagira piped up, “Osiris has been adapting the technology of the forest for his own ends. We’re probably going to run into his reflections before we run into him.”

    “Reflections?” Cid asked.

    “They’re copies, of himself, made so he can explore multiple pathways at once.”

    “So he could do this before, hence the legend at 6 Fronts, but now he can do it on an exponential level?”

    “Pretty much, yes. And yes, I am aware that it makes Osiris seem like an egomaniac. Don’t worry, he is.”

    “That must be a headache after a while.” Sarah mumbled as she came back out into the opening, “What else is he like? I’ve heard everything from greatest person alive to complete bastard.”

    “Um… he cares, a lot, about what happens to everyone, but he has a funny way of showing it.” Sagira had to think for a moment before answering, “Like he doesn’t care what people think of him really, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of him stopping the Vex, but there’s a few people he really cares for. He just… doesn’t know how to show it.”

    “Hah…” Cid chuckled a little, “That sounds familiar.”

    “Doesn’t it though? I can tell she’s the same way, but has a few more people skills.”

    “I’m right here you know.” Sarah growled at them.

    “Oh we know.” Sagira chimed. Sarah just made a disgusted noise as they kept climbing. Along the narrow edges and through the tight spaces they climbed around the massive abyss until they came to a stop before one of those glowing Vex plates. It was obvious this plate was protecting a conflux, and they would probably have to deal with something once it was destroyed, so they stepped on the plate until the forcefield went down, and they shot it. Instead of a flood of Vex however, a beam suddenly powered up through the middle of the abyss and lit up the entire area with a hum.

    “I have a funny feeling about that conflux being there.” Sagira piped up. “Osiris has to be here somewhere…”

    Cid frowned a little as he could sense something in the air. He looked up a little to see a tiny glowing orb made of Sol energy floating about. Sarah looked up a little and tilted her head slightly. Suddenly it burst open, and silhouette of a man floated before them. It was similar to a spirits, but much more of a concise form and instead of a slight blue that Terra was, it was gold with solar and light energy. The man was about as tall as Cid was, but had a bit of a larger build. There seemed to be feathers around his collar and his helm was in the shape of a fierce bird. His robes were slightly tattered from years of abuse through the forests. This had to be a reflection of Osiris, and when he spoke, it sent a thunder through their hearts. He was angry, but… Sarah recognized the worry in his voice.

    “Sagira! You shouldn’t be here!” He then turned his gaze and spoke a little softer to Sarah and Cid, “You brought someone new with you…? Two people?”

    “Oh? Them? Get this, they’re friends of Ikora’s. I’m uh… borrowing Sarah’s ghost. She’s the Hunter here.”

    “Hmph.” The reflection mumbled. Cid looked up to see more of them starting to appear on their way up and out of this place. It was actually rather creepy in a way. All of these copies of Osiris, all of them watching, listening, learning.

    “Send word, Sagira has returned. She’s brought a Hunter named Sarah and another Warlock.” One reflection said to another as they started their climb again. They watched them both burst back into those tiny orbs and sped off to find the real Osiris.

    “Osiris sent you away for your own safety.” Another one said. At this point, Sarah was starting to get a bit freaked out and was starting to run through the place where she could, but the reflection kept up with them. “Your presence here puts everything at risk.”

    “Well guess what, he needs me.” Sagira spat back.

    “Sarah, you must realize she should not be here, nor you, nor your friend.” Another one spoke up further ahead. Sarah stopped to answer it, glaring at it behind her mask.

    “You and I both know something big is going on.” Sarah told it sternly, “And without Sagira, you’re going to die. What good is all your damn planning then? Sorry pal, Cid and I are staying. At the very least you could do us a big favour and tell us what’s going on.”

    “Hmph, I see you Guardians are far more stubborn…”

    The reflection burst and flew away again. They could hear others above them now. There was something about new timelines being created and needing to explore them…

    “Just like back in the Pyramidion…” Sarah mumbled. Now she knew what the strange frequency was all about. Io, Nessus, and Mercury must be all connected through the Vex, so while they were in the Pyramidion, these reflections had been scurrying around, seeing what happened now that Braikion was dead.

    But there was one that mumbled something like ‘It’s almost too late.’ Too late? Too late for what? She had a feeling she didn’t want to know the answer, but she was going to find out anyways.

    They finally came to the top and went through a wide passage over the sand that was now blue.  Around a corner they could see light pouring through. When they turned they were greeted by the sight of a vast empty space filled with a mist.  It was bright in there, like it was merely a cloudy day, but they could see and feel just huge and powerful this machine they were stepping into was. In front of them stood another few reflections on the edge of solid ground, and at this point Sagira flew right up to them, shaking her borrowed shell.

    “Where is the real Osiris?!” She shouted at one of them. It sadly shook its head.

    “You cannot go to him now Sagira.”

    The other four walked away suddenly burst as well before Sagira could shout at that one again.

    “What?! What did he find?! What’s so bad that it could scare Osiris?”

    “I believe it’s best to show you.” The reflection turned around as Sarah and Cid walked up to it, “Behold, the Infinite Forest. A planet sized prediction engine, simulating trillions of realities in parallel, all geared towards a single Vex purpose.”

    The two of them stepped to be beside the reflection, and now could see the platforms were manifesting everywhere. One platform would appear simulating a battle, while another one simulating snow conditions would disappear. They seemed to last quite a long time though before vanishing, so that was a bit of a relief. These were just small runs, small tests, and there were far larger ones being tested elsewhere.

    “Holy fuck Cid…” Sarah breathed, “This is massive. Did you know about this?”

    “I knew the Infinite Forest by name, but I didn’t know just how massive this is.” Cid shook his head a little.

    “Very few do.” The reflection added, “We’ll guide you through this place, just wait until a platform is in range. I know you can fly, I can sense the way the Solar energy dances around your back, but obviously your hunter friend cannot.”

    “Wait, you’re actually a Dawnblade?” Sagira asked, “Wow, small world huh? Or, solar system I guess. I didn’t think anyone took that up after Osiris left.”

    “Osiris is a Dawnblade?” Cid asked.

    “He is. Lucky you, you share a class with Osiris and didn’t even know it. Where did you learn?”

    “I uh… self taught, sort of…”

    “Oh my light.” Sagira’s shell started to raise up a little, “Osiris is going to flip. He thought he was the only one left who knew how to do all that. And self taught?! Oh man.”

   “We can talk about that when this threat is gone.” The Reflection suddenly spoke up. There was a sound and right before them came a platform they could stand on. They were simulating a battle between the Hive and the Fallen here.

   “The Vex are simulating reality in here to brute force the future.” Sagira piped up before they could go forward. “And before you ask, yes, everything is real enough to kill you. If you could do me a favour and not die Sarah, that would be great. I don’t know how well the whole revival process is going to work.”

    The hunter gave a sigh, “It can never be easy, can it?”

    Sagira was right though. Every creature might as well have been real in here. They fought and reacted the same way. They were real enough to touch, to kill, and there seemed to be almost no difference between them and the real ones outside of this simulation. It was rather hard to believe for Sarah. To think, they could just simulate and create entire worlds in here. They could live in their own little fantasy world for the rest of their lives and change it to their will. This massive prediction machine could be used to simulate the past, present, and future of anywhere.

    They jumped from simulation to simulation with the Reflection leading the way. There were a few strange ones. There was one where they were trying to simulate how to create music (and failing miserably), another that was testing the effects of deep snow on the Vex (apparently they did not fare well), and another was testing how many Vex did it take to screw in a lightbulb (apparently five because they didn’t have a clue how to do it). Most of them however that they passed through was of battles. It made sense of course, to battle things out with simulated enemies to prepare for a real one.

   “They can simulate just about anything, can’t they?” Sarah asked as they finally came to solid ground. The reflection burst and flew off, signalling that they must be in the correct place. In front of them was another gateway into a major simulation.

    “It’s pretty impressive, but knowing the Vex, there is one thing they’re bad at simulating though.” Cid replied.

    “What’s that?”

    “Light and Life.” He turned towards her, “If they were to simulate you or me, they would make perfect replicas of us body wise. They would make them react in battle the same way we do and fight in the same way they’ve learned how we’ve fought, but they don’t know us. They don’t know our Light. They don’t know our personalities. We would be living dolls.”

    Sarah could understand that. How could you simulate something you didn’t know or understood?

    “But for simulating the past and finding possibilities…”

    “They certainly have it down to a science.” Cid nodded. He was starting to wonder what she was thinking. He was aware of that weight she dragged around from her past. Was it possible she was…?

    “Hey guys? I know this is fascinating, but maybe we should maybe get moving?” Sagira asked. They dropped the conversation for now and ran up the stairs and through the next gate. They came to another one of those long hallways, but they noticed something at their feet. There was grass here the colour of straw that reached up past their ankles and brushed against their legs.

    “First, we’ll show you how it all began.” Osiris’ voice rang through the hall. They looked at each other before passing through the next gate. Both of them were taken aback at what they saw. Instead of a lifeless desert, they were looking at Mercury full of beautiful plant life. The closest thing to describe it was a savannah, with rolling hills full of that golden grass, flat topped trees with purple leaves, long purple flowers similar to Fireweed, and a sky that was so blue.

    “Mercury, untold centuries ago before the Vex arrived.” The reflection suddenly manifested beside them and started to walk towards the sun. The three of them followed, gazing all around them at the beauty that had been lost. They looked up a bit and their eyes widened seeing Vex technology suddenly manifesting from thin air and descending upon the land. The pillars all came down slowly, chiming the bell for nature’s destruction. Soon enough, the planet would turn into a lifeless husk because of it.

    The Reflection continued, “Here the Vex planted the seed that would become the Infinite Forest, and its mind, Panoptes. Panoptes has a single purpose: reshape reality for the Vex, and only the Vex. Strange…” the reflection stopped walking and suddenly turned around to face Sarah who also stopped in her tracks. Cid paused and tilted his head a little as Osiris’ Reflection stared intently at her. “…all of this started with the arrival of a single mind with a seed. Will it end with the arrival of a single Guardian who revived the key to get in?”

    Sarah stared at him before shaking her head, “Osiris, you’re the one that knows this place inside out, not me.”

    “We don’t need someone who knows this place. We need someone that no one is expecting. Come now.”

    A portal opened right in front of them, and the reflection stepped through. Sarah looked at Cid, still shaking her head.

    “I don’t think I like what I’m getting into.”

    “I don’t think we’re getting much of a choice.” Cid replied. The three of them went through the portal, Sagira seeming troubled.

    “Now I think I understand why there’s so many reflections now.” She chirped.

    “Yes,” the Reflection ahead of them spoke, “We’ve tried and failed to prevent this outcome. Our best efforts only slow it and…” the Reflection suddenly seemed rather sombre, “…well, it might be best to see it for yourself.”

   They looked at each other before following the reflection back into the Infinite Forest.

   “Tell me Sarah and Cid, were you there when the Traveler woke up?” the Reflection suddenly asked.

    “We were literally right beside it.” Sarah admitted, “We were trying to shoot Ghaul in the face when it blew up.”

    “I see. I do not know who this Ghaul is, but I imagine he was central in all of us losing our Light. A living Traveler changes everything however, for good and bad. Many events are now set in motion. I wrote those prophecies to warn people and… as you know, it went terribly wrong. But you can’t exile the future. You can’t run from it.”

    There was a moment of silence before Cid walked up to stand beside the reflection, “Tell me Osiris: what did you do when you lost your light?”

    The Reflection didn’t answer for a moment, “…I bided my time. I waited in the shadows until I finally felt that surge come back to me. I thought for a while I might lose Sagira. Thankfully however…” He shook his head, “There’s no time for that discussion. Tell me though, who did manage to wake the Traveler? Were you involved? Was Sarah involved?”

    “It’s a bit of a long story, but we were involved.”

    The Reflection chuckled a little, “That’s the first bit of hope I’ve seen in a long time.”

    A platform manifested in front of them. While the reflection lead the way, the other three navigated through the simulations to cross to the other side. They found themselves stuck at one simulation however as there wasn’t any others nearby to jump to. It was a simulation of how water worked in comparison to Radiolaria. The small platforms had small rivers and streams that went over a ledge into their own separate pools. It was interesting to watch both waterfalls while they waited at least, but seeing those waterfalls…

    “…Hey Cid?” Sarah started to ask. He glanced up at the sound of his name, “Can I ask you something… a bit personal and weird?”

    “Uh, sure? Go for it.” Cid tilted his head slightly in confusion.

    “Does it bother you… not knowing anything in your last life? Most of us remember in our little group, but you don’t. Doesn’t it bother you that you can’t remember loved ones from back then, or what happened to them?”

    Cid had to think for a moment before answering. He knew exactly why she was asking, “It used to, but not anymore. This is my life now. Though it’s sad that I don’t remember people I once loved, I’m sure they’re happy knowing I’m still kicking, and I’m doing something good for everyone.”

    Sarah gave a small nod.

    “If you were thinking of finding a way to go back in time with this Forest, I don’t think it works that way Sarah.”

    She sighed a little, “Didn’t think it would. It just… would be nice, you know. Then I’d…” she shook her head, “Never mind.”

    “What good would it do though really? You change the past, everything changes drastically. You could make things worse. It’s good to know about it, but to change it would be a dangerous game. Besides, don’t you have other things to fret about here and now? Here and now has some good things, don’t you think?”

    She looked up at him. He had taken off his helmet and was smiling gently at her. He was trying to comfort her. She didn’t know if he knew the reason she kept asking, but he at least knew something was wrong. Sagira had also been listening intently to the conversation while the reflection kept its eyes open for a pathway.

    “I… yeah…”

    But wouldn’t it be wonderful, to go back in time to learn what had happened? Even then, would it had done so much harm to go back to the point where she pushed that baby onto the bank and taken it back with her? To pick up where she had left off back then? Was it so bad to wish for a second chance? To wish you could change things? To wish to have her old life back?

    He was right though. This life had given her some joy and he had given more than his fair share of advice for her. He had it so much worse, yet didn’t yearn for the past… she felt a bit bad for asking.

    “There is a way forward now.” The Reflection suddenly spoke up. Cid glanced over before putting his helmet on and standing up. He then offered a hand to Sarah to stand.

    “Come on, let’s find out what he’s trying to show us. Then maybe if you need to talk…?”

    She shook her head a little before taking his hand and standing up, “I’ll be alright. Just need a drink or two.”

    They chased after the Reflection to another solid pillar in the middle of the fog. Up through the portal they noticed that it was darker in this transition hall.

    “We must find and stop Panoptes.” The reflection told them, “But we’ve yet to find a timeline where we succeed. This… this is what it looks like when we fail. This is what the Vex want.”

    The reflection burst again. The three of them nervously looked at each other before going forward. The sand beneath their feet turned from blue to pure black. As they went through, they both let out a sound of horror from their throats. What they saw was the Lighthouse, almost completely obliterated. In the ruins where they stood they could see the rotten bodies of those who were here before when the walls came down. The only light here was from glowing red lights in the Vex technology that had since been built. Walking in a little closer, they found themselves horrified to see what had happened to their sun. It was now a black, lifeless husk. They could see where the entire side of the lighthouse was torn away, leaving only rubble and ruin with a few lifeless flags still weakly hanging on.

    “The Lighthouse…! This must be what he saw!” Sagira shouted.

    “This is…” Sarah started to say but was at a loss for words.

    “Yes, we’ve tried to prevent this outcome.” The Reflection went on, “Neither light nor darkness exists here. The sun’s warmth is gone. All life: lost.”

    Sarah walked to the most stable edge she could and looked out over the valley. There was no gate there anymore as it was no longer needed, but instead a sea of Vex below in the dark. This was not a future she wanted. She didn’t want this to happen, not to anyone. The death of so many, and Guardians would surely be snuffed out one by one…

    “But that was before you Sarah.” The reflection spoke and grabbed her attention. “You are the key, the one thing they don’t expect. You can stop this. Every timeline we’ve tracked leads here. You must destroy Panoptes to prevent this future.”

    Sarah could certainly feel the pressure piling on. She was the only one with a ghost who could get in here. Even with help, a lot of this fell on her and Sagira. She felt her nerves bundling together, her heart racing, her body getting heavier as she stared at the reflection. She helped to stop Ghaul, but could she stop a homicidal Vex with an entire planet of a prediction engine at his finger tips? She found her hands coming up to her chest and squeezing together as her nerves were getting the better of her.

    “Sarah…?” Cid asked and put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t really seem to react to that, but before he could shake her, there was a loud sound right beside them and it knocked her out of her small panic attack. They turned towards it and both of them let out a small scream seeing the creature as they jerked away from it. It looked like a Hydra, but it had long arms with clawed fingers. The creature was massive, everything was shielded including its vulnerable eye. They could feel how much power this thing had as it raised its arms with a shriek.

  “Panoptes! He’s found us!” The reflection shouted. More reflections burst into being and quickly opened a portal for the three of them to escape to. At the same time, Harpies with the strongest shields they could muster came to shoot at them, and Panoptes slammed his hands together to make the entire simulation unstable. The two Guardians let out screams and shrieks as they felt their bodies being eaten away by Arc energy.

    “Go! You’re far more important than any of us!” The Reflections bellowed at them. The two of them held onto each other for support and made a mad dash through that portal with Sagira right behind them. They crashed through on the other side, skidding into the sand on their fronts. They looked up behind them to see that nothing else had followed, thankfully.

    “This is bad! Really bad!” Sagira shouted. Even she was now losing composure.

    “Believe me, we know.” Sarah replied as she stood up. She felt her body shaking after that scare.

    “We need all hands on deck.” Cid said as soon as he was on his feet and standing, “We need ideas, we need fire power. You head back and tell Ikora what happened. I can’t make the Followers leave, but I can at least hold this line from the Vex.”

    “We need everyone we can get, you, me, Ikora, Osiris, and any friends you have that can help. We know what happens if we fail.” Sagira flew about them frantically as she spoke.

    “Ikora will have ideas. Let’s go.” Cid instructed. Sarah gave and nod and followed him through the hall. They were grateful when they came out the other side to Mercury.

    “Ikora? Are you there?!” Sagira shouted through the radio.

    “Sagira?” Ikora asked, “You just left. Where’s Osiris?”

    “In trouble, we all are. I’ll explain on the way back. Grab that group we were talking to, we need firepower. Cid is going to hold the line for the Followers until we get back.”

    “Understood. Hurry back Sarah.”

    Sarah found herself chewing her lower lip as she raced towards where she parked her ship. Time was not on their side again, and it was even more of a crunch than the Red War. Unlike the Cabal, the Vex were very efficient, and if they weren’t fast, there would be hell to pay.


	5. A Stroll of Sorts

     “W…wow. Ok. Shit.” Ash managed to get out of her throat when she was finally up to date again. Sarah, Gale, Alexander, and Ash all sat around Ikora in a quiet part of the wall with Sagira over Sarah’s shoulder

     “So, it’s the end of everything.” Ikora let out a dry, humourless chuckle, “I thought after the Red War we would get a break.”

     “Apparently not.” Ghost translated, “So now the question becomes: how do we find Panoptes? The Forest is huge.”

     “If nothing else, the Vex are methodical.” Ikora mused, “They’ll have a schematic of the forest.”

     “A map? I mean that makes it a bit easier to find him. If he shows up on that map then we’re laughing.” Ash pointed out.

     “There’s only one place that could possibly store that much Data…”

     Gale lit up a little, “The Pyramidion! That has to be it! And we’ve already been through there!”

     “We’ve already done this run then, makes it a bit easier.” Sarah sat up. “So who’s coming with me.”

     “I will.” Gale nodded to her, “It’ll be easier. What about you Ash?”

     “Yeaaaah, remember the whole ‘we aren’t going to tell Zavala’ thing? Well in order for that to still be a thing, I have to help him train some kinderguardians. There’s been more showing up lately. Cayde is off doing Traveler knows what and if we bail, he’s gonna know something’s up.”

     “Guess who also got roped into that?” Alexander raised his hand as his Ghost spoke, “So it’s just going to be you two.”

     “Don’t worry I’m sure we can find some shortcuts to make this easier.” Sagira assured them.

     “Alright, I better go back before people start catching on. You all know what needs to be done.” Ikora instructed. They nodded and split off quickly. Gale quickly caught up to Sarah who was rushing for her ship at a brisk pace.

     “Are you ok?” Gale asked, “You’ve been through quite a bit, and you haven’t stopped to rest.”

     “I’m fine.” Sarah sighed. “The sooner we put a bullet in that thing’s head, the sooner I’ll rest easy.”

     “But it wouldn’t hurt if you took a bit of a break. I know we can keep going for a lot longer without proper rest but still…”

     “I’ll sleep on the way to Io, I’ll be fine.”

     Gale looked at her a bit sadly, “If you’re sure… if you need to talk Sarah, I’m all ears…”

     Sarah waved it off. Gale had enough to worry about without adding this weight she was dragging around, “I’ll be fine.”

      Gale didn’t take that for the truth.

* * * *

     “Are you sure the map is here Ikora?” Sagira had asked once they landed on Io. The trip was far too short for Sarah’s liking. As she transmatted down she could feel some fatigue hanging around that she couldn’t quite shake off.

     “If the Vex want to reshape the future, the Pyramidion Io is part of the plan. It has to be there.” Ikora replied. Gale was also certain that there had to at least be a clue in that Pyramidion. They would be wasting time trying to search the Infinite Forest. By the time they found anything in there, the sun might have already gone out.

     They leaped down to the entrance once more. An idle conflux floated there and Sagira lit up.

     “I know a trick with that conflux. Give me a moment here.” She said before floating over and starting to scan it.

     “Brace yourselves for the Vex welcoming party.” Ikora warned them. They both knew what they were in for and raised their weapons up, but when that door gave a shudder and opened for them, there was no one about.

     “Or… not?” Gale mumbled.

     “With me, you get all the shortcuts.” Sagira happily chimed. Gale smiled a little behind her helmet.

     “It’ll be nice having a more peaceful run through there after last time.”

     “Who is this?!” someone very familiar bellowed through the comms and startled Sagira. “I will find the channel you are using eventually! You shouldn’t be going into the Pyramidion!”

     It sounded like Asher had figured out they opened it up again. They decided to say nothing and wait for a click before making a dash inside. They didn’t need Asher on their backs trying to find a map inside the place he claimed to know so much about.

     “Who was that?” Sagira asked.

     “Oh, just Io’s neighbourly know it all grump. Don’t worry about him.” Gale told Sagira.

     They got down to the bottom quickly. Sagira found herself taking a bit of time to look around as they came to the vast emptiness with those platforms going down. For all that time she spent in the Infinite Forest, she never went into the Pyramidion. The two massive structures were connected, yes, but the Infinite Forest took so much time to explore.

     “Sagira…” Ikora started to say which made them all pause, “I know we didn’t leave one another on the best terms…”

     “Hm, can’t imagine why. Even though you knew Osiris better than anyone else, you were with the group that exiled my Guardian. Needless to say, I didn’t like it.” Sagira sounded angry, but her tone got softer, “But… I also understand that people we’re ready to hear what he was saying back then.”

     “It wasn’t just his prophecies. He never understood that there was more to being a Warlock than to be the smartest person in the room.”

     Sagira got a bit angry again, “Osiris has changed. You are still the ‘by the book’ Ikora I remember.”

     There was a humourless chuckle, “I’m not so sure about that. Losing my light was revealing… I see now that I need to be more than I was. Maybe we all do.”

     Sarah felt a bit of a stab in her gut. She knew it wasn’t directed at her, but the part about being more than what she was now did get to her a little. How could she be more? She was an unwilling Guardian, she was a mother, how could she be better? Be more? Gale was more. She was a nurse, yes, but now she was a Guardian and she was growing in power. She was starting to become Ikora’s right hand woman, she was better, more than what she once was.

     Yet she felt like she was inferior. Sarah wanted to shake the woman sometimes to maybe knock some sense into her. She wished she could somehow convince that Warlock that she was more. She wished she could convince her that she was one of the best damn Guardians she had ever seen.

      For now though, they had a job to do. It was much easier navigating this place now that there weren’t death lazers and all sorts of mooks to slow them down. As far as the Vex so far knew, nothing was wrong. There were no Guardians here.

     “Great…” Sagira groaned as she kept scanning about, “Looks like Ikora was right. My scans show that the Pyramidion does receive data from the Forest. I’ve got the location of a conflux where we can access it.”

     “You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.” Sarah stopped and placed her hands on her hips, “What, you’re the jealous sibling that’s grumbling because the other one was right?”

     Gale burst out laughing when she heard that, and she didn’t really know why. She just felt that the analogy was right, she knew it from personal experience at one point. She was glad no one could see her face at the moment, for her smile turned rather sad as the fuzzy memories of her sister clawed at her brain. She wished she could remember. She knew there was an option, but getting the time to go out to Terra again? Easier said than done.

     “What?! No! And how would you know about siblings?!” Sagira was clearly flustered as she flew about.

     “I had a sister once.” Gale gently told Sagira, hiding the small headache coming through from fuzzy memories trying to make themselves clear, “And I think Sarah might’ve hit the nail on the head.”

     “Ugh, let’s just keep going.” Sagira shook her shell and started leading the way forward. As they came to the next opened room, it seemed that Vex were finally catching on. There were Goblins milling about and as soon as they took a step into that room, they suddenly looked up and started to shoot at them. The two girls quickly dove behind cover as they readied their weapons.

     “Guess quiet time is over.” Sarah groaned.

     “It was nice while it lasted.” Gale added as she peeked out to shoot some of the marching Goblins.

     “Well, if you want some good news, I can reprogram that warp gate up ahead to get us close to the conflux.” Sagira chirped.

     “If you could, that would be great. Save us some trouble.” Sarah told her before running out to the last few and stabbing one in the chest. She spun about to give another Goblin a good kick in the head before it was shot by Gale while ripping the knife out in one smooth motion. The three left were about to march towards her, only to receive a pulse grenade at their feet. The arc energy wasted no time laying those last Vex to waste, and the three of them could now head towards the gate. Sagira flew ahead and seemed to scan and calculate something for a moment before turning around to face them.

     “Alright, we should be good to go. We just need to jump through.” She told them. She then flew through the portal with the two Guardians at her heels. Unfortunately, Gale and Sarah both quickly realized that the destination hadn’t changed at all. They knew this room, as it was the one where Ash nearly got killed on the lazer trap after Gale had told her to watch for it.

     “Well… that didn’t work as well as I expected…” Sagira’s shell drooped a little in embarrassment. They heard a chuckle through the comms.

     “The Sagira I knew would never admit to anything less than Osiris level perfection.” Ikora teased.

     “Ikora, here’s a secret: no one has ever lived up to Osiris’ reputation, not even Osiris.” Sagira sassed right back. Sarah let out a small groan and rolled her eyes behind her mask.

     “Again, siblings. The both of you. If you’re going to be like that, can you keep the bickering to a minimum?” Sarah asked. Gale giggled a little as Sagira tried to glare at the Hunter.

     The death traps seemed to have remained off, which made it much easier to get to the next warp gate. They both recognized the massive red pit that once housed Braikon on the other side. They both glanced around before jumping in, being gently carried by an unknown force all the way to the bottom, just like last time. Once they got down, they looked to the large gate where Braikon once stormed out of. It was powered down now, empty, and the only thing left in this room were two plates.

     “I can tell this conflux is nearby, but the Vex must be hiding it.” Sagira mumbled.

     “Want to bet if we stand on two plates, it’s going to show up?” Sarah asked.

     “That is how this usually works.” Sagira nodded. Sarah picked on plate, and Gale stood on the other. Once they did, a rumble went through the entire place as a large conflux manifested itself. They could also see the very familiar signs of Vex preparing to manifest.

     “There’s going to be a lot of them!” Sagira shouted.

     “We got this.” Sarah replied and looked at Gale, “On three. One… two…”

     Sagira was right, there were many Vex that manifested in front of them. They more mostly Fanatics and Goblins, but nothing the two couldn’t handle.

     “Three!”

     Sarah jumped up into the air, reaching into the void and pulling that bow. Aim first, didn’t make sense, but you had to. There was only a short amount of time you could hold that bow for. At the same time there was a rumble from Gale as she channelled the storm throughout her body. Sarah’s arrow flew to be right in the middle of the group, and it quickly tethered and caught everyone. Sagira then watched as Gale tore through them, the Arc and Void energy ripping them to shreds before they even had a chance to blink. It was a sight to behold, especially as it had been ages since she’d seen either a Nightstalker or a Stormcaller.

     “You two are amazing, did you know that?” Sagira complemented when the dust finally settled. Gale let her feet touch the ground to dismiss the stormtrance for another time.

     “Oh, well…” Gale started to stutter, “I-It’s really nothing…”

     “Excuse me?” Sagira flew right into Gale’s face, “You are a Stormcaller. Let me repeat that: a STORM. CALLER. And let me guess, self taught as well?”

     “I… yes…”

     “Warlocks have the hardest time getting that down. You taught yourself to do that. That’s amazing. Don’t you try to say otherwise. And you!” Sagira then flew over to Sarah, “I have never seen you use your light until now. A Nightstalker? I didn’t think you were, but that’s somehow very fitting.”

     Sarah shrugged a little, “Learned it a long time ago. I was alive when Osiris was still in the city, so there were still some around that showed me the ropes.”

     “You’ve been alive this long, and I’ve never even heard about you before? You were alive when Andal was the Hunter Vanguard?”

     “Yeah. I didn’t know him very well though. How do you know what happened to Andal?”

     “He was… a friend, to Osiris.”

      _So he felt it…_  Sarah thought and sighed a little, “That was a shitty day.”

     “What I don’t get is that you’re clearly skilled, yet this is the first time I’ve heard your name Sarah.”

     Sarah shrugged, “I kept under the radar. Never liked being a Guardian…”

      _And I still don’t…_

     “Oi, enough talk. Let’s find this map and get going.” Sarah waved Sagira over to scan the conflux. Gale found herself fidgeting a little. She knew Sarah was old, but she didn’t really think on what she saw. She heard of Andal the first Hunter Vanguard and his terrible fate, but what bothered her far more was the last part. She could tell it bothered Sagira a bit too, but she was too busy searching for the map to really ask about it.

     “I-It’s not here! I don’t understand!” Sagira stuttered as she kept searching through it.

     “Keep looking.” Ikora sternly told her. There was a moment of silence before Sagira’s shell lifted up a little.

     “Wait, I got something!” she stopped scanning up and turned towards the girls, “Coordinates for a node in the Infinite Forest. That’s where our map is!”

     Gale sighed in relief, “It’ll be much easier to find now at least.”

     “Yeah. We’ll stop at the tower on the way back. Maybe we can pick up another person to run with me though it.” Sarah told them, but then noticed how Gale’s shoulders were slumped a little, and she was clasping her hands in front of her. “…are you ok…?”

     She then was suddenly on the receiving end of a hug. It surprised Sarah needless to say; the last time she got a hug from Gale was at the end of the Red War. She wasn’t really sure what brought it on either. Sagira tilted her shell a little watching the display.

     “You’re not alone, you know that right?” Gale asked. Sarah finally figured out it was because Gale was worried about her. In a way, it was bit touching.

     “Gale…”

     “If you need to talk or anything, I’m here you know? I know there’s a lot of pressure on you right now and I know things have been bothering you.” Gale pulled away from her and looked up at her slightly, “So please, don’t think you’re alone in this. You’re not.”

     Her dream told her of a child that tortured the woman. A child, a weight, chained her down and dragged the hunter around. If the child were alive, that would be a horrible thing to say, but this one was dead. This one was haunting her, and just making her life miserable because Sarah could not let her go. She hoped that perhaps she could take some of the weight off of Sarah’s heart. She didn’t know how it would tie in Panoptes, not yet, but she was helping the situation, even if just a little.

     Sarah stood there in silence for a moment before placing a hand on her shoulder.

     “I know I’m not.”

     Accepting their help though with her demons was a different story. That would take some more time.


	6. What Remains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mom please take care of yourself jfc.

    The tower was surprisingly busy when they came back. The two of them slipped through the crowd while Sagira remained in hiding. Trying to weave their way to Ikora to see if she had seen the others was tricky, but they weren’t being followed on their way to the Bazaar. There they saw Saladin talking to Ikora, Alexander, and Ash.

    “I need her to show some people what real Light is. A demonstration of a Hunter’s power.” Saladin told Ikora. It was starting to make sense now why the tower was so busy. The Iron Banner made it busy all the time.

    “I understand that, I just ask you don’t keep her for long. I have a special project underway that I need her skills for.” Ikora replied. Ash seemed to be looking for a way out of the predicament she was in, but there really wasn’t one.

    “Oh dear…” Gale mumbled as Saladin and Ash both walked away, “I guess she’s out. I have a feeling Saladin doesn’t take well to Osiris, so we should keep him out of this.”

    Sarah sighed, “I was hoping I could take her along too. Hopefully Alex isn’t busy.”

    Ghost perked up seeing the two walk towards them, “Hey! You’re back! Ikora filled us in.”

    Sarah nodded, “Yeah. I was hoping to pick up a pair of extra hands.”

    “Well…” Alexander glanced to the side along with Ghost, “You’re actually switching hands. Zavala is looking for Gale to help train some new Warlocks. If we keep him waiting for too long…”

    “He’ll know something is up…” Gale sighed, “Of course. Any news from our shell mechanic?”

    “He’s getting there. He says it’s a delicate operation, since if he messes up, Sagria won’t be able to return to her shell.”

    “Well, some progress is better than none.”

    “You best hurry with Sarah to Mercury Alex. Hopefully Cid won’t have his hands full and the three of you can traverse the forest.” Ikora suggested.

    Alexander nodded. “We’ll get the map and stop Panoptes.” Ghost translated before they walked off.

    “Be careful! Come back as soon as you can!” Gale called after them.

* * * *

    “Ok, I have to ask. What’s with this voice box and translation thing?” Sagira asked as they rode through hyperspace. Sarah had fallen asleep with the auto pilot on, trying to get in some rest between trips.

    “Well, in Alex’s last life, he wasn’t ever given a proper voice box. Long story about that, but he does speak in morse code. So I’ve been his translator ever since. Listen and you’ll hear it.” Ghost explained

    Alexander said hello, and when Sagira listened, she could hear the dots and dashes in there.

    “Wow. When did you figure that out?”

    “Ikora figured it out.”

    Sagira laughed a little, “Of course she did. Well, I’m glad she did. Probably makes it a lot easier for Alexander.

    There were some beeps before Ghost started to talk, “Yeah, it’s helped a lot. But I’ve learned that I don’t need my voice to fight or do something worthwhile. I’m thinking of learning a new way to communicate so I don’t depend on my Ghost, but I’m really busy right now learning how to make weapons and armor and stuff.”

    “You definitely sound like a busy person. I overheard a few Civilians say that you put the final bullet in Ghaul before the Traveler blew him up?”

    “Well… it was a hammer, but yeah. Couldn’t have done it without everyone though.”

    “Sarah was there too, right?”

    “She was right beside me. Actually, now that I think about it… I wonder…”

    Sagira tilted her shell a little, “Wonder what?”

    “If spirits are made out of Light or Darkness, then wouldn’t a ghost have a spirit? I wonder what it looks like.”

    “A… spirit?” Sagira sounded rather sceptical.

    “Yeah! We’ve seen them before! They…” the dash light suddenly lit up as they dropped out of hyperspace, “Actually… we’ll explain later. You better wake Sarah up.”

    “You better explain later. This sounds kind of interesting.”

    She then ran into Sarah’s head a couple of times gently to wake her up. The hunter let out a groan as she rubbed her eyes and sat up straight.

    “Ugh… already time…?” she groggily asked.

    “Yep. Time to wake up sleepyhead.” Sagira chimed.

    “Do ghosts not sleep? Mine usually does…”

    “We can, but we don’t have to. I know Guardians need rest every now and then, and you have been going full tilt for a couple days now…”

    “Couple of days? When did that happen?”

    “Somewhere between the homicidal Vex and the hyperspace trips.”

    “When this is over, some people owe me some drinks, and need to let me sleep for a month.”

    As they descended they could see the Lighthouse was under siege. This time however it wasn’t the Vex causing pandemonium, but the Cabal.

    “What the…?” Ghost shouted before translating Alexander’s message, “Cid! Can you hear us? What’s going on down there?”

    “It seems that the Red Legion is interested in taking back their Almighty.” Cid replied through the comms. “Of course since it’s now a broken husk, they’re trying to scavenge parts off of the Vex. They’ve been trying to get into the Forest. It’s honestly been really funny watching them being bounced back. They’re determined, I’ll give them that.”

    Sagira laughed a little, “I can imagine. I guess you won’t be coming with us then if you’re holding these guys off?”

    “I’m afraid not. You’ll like it in there Alex. It’s honestly fascinating.”

    “We’ll have to see for ourselves, won’t we?” Ghost translated. The transmatted themselves onto the higher platform and let their ships park themselves. They could see the shots being fired everywhere and Cid in the middle of it all, taking them down without much resistance. The problem was that there were a lot of them, and it would take time for him clear them out, time that Sarah and Alexander couldn’t afford to waste.

  Instead they made their way to ground level and ran for the gate. They gave Cid a wave as they ran by and raced up the stairs into the Infinite Forest.

    “Good luck!” he shouted right before they dove inside. Alexander and Ghost both found themselves looking around at the main hallway, but they knew they couldn’t gawk for long. They followed her into the next warp gate, and found themselves taken aback by the sheer size. Multiple islands were around, but none they could get to at the moment. They would have to wait.

    “This is… wow.” Ghost said. Alexander himself was speechless.

    “You can see why we need a map of this damn place. It’s massive.” Sarah replied as she watched for the first path forward, “Osiris can make a million copies of himself, but he still might not find him in time.”

    “I can sense so many anomalies here. It’s like Reality is trying to find a version it likes.”

    “In the Forest, time itself is in flux.” Sagira explained.

    “I don’t like it. This is amazing, but it feels weird for me in here.”

    “You get used to it.” Sagira then turned to Sarah, “I know which direction we’re going Sarah. We just need a path to get there.”

    Sarah gave a small nod, and once an island showed up that was just in their reach, she took a step back and made a leap forward with Alexander right on her heels. He found himself being taken back to the City when they were trying to retake it. Instead of him leading though, he was following Sarah through the maze of simulations. She was quick and light on her feet, while he depended on momentum to get through this place. He could see now the pillar with the next gate on it that they were heading towards.

    He could see a gap up ahead they had to cross. He knew he would make it, but barely. He wasn’t so sure about Sarah though, but it seemed like she was going for it anyways. They both jumped at the same time, but as Alexander feared, the jump was a bit too much for Sarah, and she barely managed to grab hold of the edge. He quickly sped back to her and hoisted her up with ease.

    “You should be careful you know!” Ghost translated once Alexander put her back on the ground, “You definitely don’t want to fall down into this!”

    “I’m fine Alex. I just misjudged the gap a bit.” She waved him off. Alexander let out a small sigh as she kept walking. She never made mistakes like that, and if she was, then something was wrong. He would keep a sharper eye on her.

    They crossed the last gap to get into the next warp gate. Sagira sighed a bit in relief that they made it, and no one died on the way there. As they walked into the transition hall, she started to scan the area a little to find out what was happening.

    “This is a simulation of the recent past when the Cabal invaded Mercury. It looks like they’re searching for alternative outcomes.” She piped up.

    “Well, I suppose it’s good for seeing where you went wrong.” Ghost mused. Sarah found herself chewing her lower lip. How lucky these Vex were to see where they went wrong, and to perhaps even go back and try it again.

    When they managed to get through the gate, they could see a massive battle, and the Cabal were winning. Over the sands of Mercury the Cabal slaughtered the Vex with no hesitation, and now they turned their eyes upon the two Guardians. Sagira could see the way forward was over a much larger gap than Sarah and Alex could manage to jump, but she was not out of ideas.

    “Hey Ghost, I’m going to teach you a trick. If you two can hold off the Cabal for a minute, we’ll have a quick way through.”

    “Better hurry. We don’t have that much time!” Sarah shouted as she opened fire on her enemies. She then went to dive to the back while Alexander held the front. They were just like any other Cabal enemy. It was just the same as it was in the Red War. These were tactics they used to blast through them before, and they worked once again.

    She wondered… if she could simulate the raid on the camp… or even the village…

    She put a knife into a Psion a little more forcibly than she had to at the thought.

    “Ok! Ready!” Sagira called. The two ghosts wandered close to the end before creating from seemingly thin air two sparrows. “We can keep these up for a while, but the Forest will break them down! Let’s move!”

    Alexander and Sarah wasted no time jumping onto those sparrows and getting a good run at that gap. Thankfully it was just what they needed to cross, and now they could speed through the rest of the battle. Sagira tucked herself into Sarah’s hood so she could keep scanning the place while Ghost hid in transmat for the ride. Through the battle they turned into a large tunnel that descended through the simulation and was (of course) guarded by laser traps and the ongoing battle.

    “Sarah! Bad news! They must know we’re after the map! They’re redirecting the Cabal to go after it!” Sagira shouted.

    “Oh for fuck’s sake.” The hunter growled as she kicked the sparrow into the highest gear. When they crossed one last gap Sarah started to feel the sparrow spark a bit with arc energy. She and Alexander quickly jumped off and started a mad dash along the cliff. Alexander overheard Sagira, so he understood why there was a need to barrel through all of these Cabal. A speeding Titan was something to beware, and anything that got in his way was pushed out of it by his shoulder.

    They managed to squeeze into a small gap on the side of the cliff, and for a moment they were allowed to catch their breath. It was here they could see more of the inner workings of the Forest. A bright light shone over the floors here, carrying all manner of data. When they looked ahead they could see a couple holes in the tall walls, blocked off by Vex energy. It was surprisingly beautiful, but they hardly had the time to admire it. As soon as Sarah stepped foot into the room, she could see the Vex cubes that signalled that something was coming. A Minotaur quickly manifested before them and pointed its gun at them.

    “He’s going to be trouble.” Sagira mumbled. Alexander then glanced up and started to tug on Sarah’s cloak to get her attention.

    “What is it Alex…?” She asked before noticing he was pointing up. She looked up at some of the platforms and noticed a hulking Cabal on one of them. It suddenly threw itself off in a shoulder charge towards the mind and destroyed it one fell swoop once it made impact.

    “Aaaand, he’s going to be worse.” Sagira groaned.

    “If we catch him now Sarah, we can probably avoid the risk of him going for the map!” Ghost translated. Sarah nodded, knowing exactly what he wanted her to do. She rolled out of the way of an incoming blast and leaped up into the air. She pulled the bow back and launched that tether, but the creature saw it coming. It leaped away over the wall where they couldn’t follow, and instead the tether grabbed all of the Vex that had just teleported in.

    “Mother fucker!” Sarah yelled as she came to the ground. At the very least it was a lot easier to gun them all down, but it was clear she was still mad he jumped right out of her shot. She had that happen only a few times, and of course the one time they were on a massive time crunch, it had to happen again.

    Once the last of the Vex were destroyed however, the forcefields opened up for them to go through. Alexander waved Sarah over as he dove through one. Indeed the Cabal was on the other side, trying to figure out how to get past a forcefield that was taller than he could leap along with a few other Cabal who were at a loss. Sarah gritted her teeth as she ran forward and leaped onto a Legionary, slicing the neck wide open before rolling off. She looked up and found herself scrambling away from the large Cabal they were after before he could crush her beneath his foot. She could then see hammers of Sol flying in the air, and slamming into its back. He stumbled forward from the impact, and didn’t have time to full see who the culprit before Alexander had rushed forward and smashed the last hammer into his head with as much strength as he could muster. The scent of burning flesh hit Sarah’s nose as the head was completely destroyed in the last blast.

    “Sarah! Look out!” Ghost suddenly shouted. She hadn’t even realized a Psion had snuck up behind her while she had been staring. She whirled around just in time to catch its hand before it could put a blade into her back. Sarah gritted her teeth as she grabbed its other arm. She was then pushed over onto her back as the Psion fell with her, still trying to get the knife in her neck. It thankfully gave Alexander a good shot and Sarah would watch the bullet go through its head. She let out a grunt as she rolled the body off of her.

    “Are you ok?!” Ghost shouted, “Are you sure nothing’s wrong? You’re not usually like this…“

    “I’m fine…” Sarah muttered as she turned to get up, but then let out a squeak when the Titan reached over and lifted her onto her feet.

    “Bullshit.” Ghost translated, “You sat there for a moment. You lost focus. What’s wrong?”

    This was sounding very familiar, except last time it was the other way around. The way Alexander was standing there with her arms crossed meant that he wasn’t going to take another ‘I’m fine’ for an answer.

    “I’m just tired Alex…” Sarah shook her head. Being tired was partially the problem, “I haven’t really stopped since I took Sagira to the radio tower…”

    “Then you need to stop for a moment. You need rest. You were the one who yelled at us for pushing ourselves in the Red War, now it’s my turn to tell you to stop. We’ll get this map, you get to rest up, and then we’ll take the fight to Panoptes.”

    At this point, Sarah was too tired to argue. Alexander was just worried about her, like everyone else was. She had to admit though, she was a bit proud of him. He had come so far since the day she met him, and now here he was, trying to take care of her when she was nearing the end of her rope.

    She gave a weary nod, “I’ll… try…”

    “Come on…” Alexander placed an arm around her, “Let’s get that map and get out of here.”

    She didn’t try to move his arm, instead leaning against him a little as they walked through the gap where the forcefield once was. There was a small floating node, and Sagira floated over to start to scan it and copy all of the data files.

    “Scanning… ugh, I can’t find Panoptes! The map is too big! I can’t search it fast enough! It changes constantly! I need more processing power!”

    “So now what?” Ghost asked, “Even if we both search it, I don’t know if we can find him either.”

    “I just need to get a hold of a Vex mind. I’ll bet Nessus will have one that will work. I know you’re exhausted Sarah, and I know something’s seriously bothering you, but that’s where we’ll have to go next.”

    Sarah sighed, “This better not be a wild goose chase. At least Nessus is far, I can sleep in the ship again.

    “Sarah…” Ghost translated.

    “I have to go Alex. You and I both know that. If I have to, I’ll go by myself.”

    “Sarah…” She felt his arm holding her a bit tighter, “You need to stop.”

    The Hunter shook her head, “I can’t. Not… not when there’s this much on the line.”

    For a moment, Alex could hear her voice quivering a little. Perhaps the pressure was really starting to get to her.


	7. A Long Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll ready for feels?

    She did end up going to Nessus alone. The mechanic that was fixing Sagira’s Ghost shell needed something made. Cayde and Amanda were both running around after a major incident with ships, and the only other welder and metalworker that was in on the operation was of course Alexander. He seemed very nervous when Ikora told him what had to be done, but promised he would do his best. Cid was still holed up in Mercury, trying to keep the Vex away from the Lighthouse. He said that more and more seemed to show up in each wave, and it was getting harder for him to hold the line by himself. Gale was still trapped in doing errands for Zavala, Ash was still stuck helping Saladin, and there was no way she was going to spike her stress levels by taking Red along, who was busy anyways.

   It was the first time Sagira really had a chance to study the Hunter on the way to Nessus. Usually Sarah wore a mask out there, but she took it off while she slept. Sagira made note of the bags under her eyes, the X on her face that was starting to fade because she hadn’t had time to reapply the paint. The woman seemed very pale, and she twitched in her sleep sometimes. Often she muttered things, names, but then would still again. Those still moments were rare though, and she twitched and shifted around. This sleep wasn’t restful. Things were really getting under the Hunter’s skin when she was supposed to be resting.

    “Sarah…” Sagira gently said as she tried to nudge her awake. She cut the feed to Ikora for a moment so they could talk privately at least. Sarah gave a small stir and groan before opening her eyes. They were such a pretty blue, but they looked so exhausted.

    “Eh…? Are we there yet…?” Sarah groaned.

    “No, we’re a little ways off, but you were tossing in your sleep.”

    Sarah let out another small groan as she rubbed her eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them. “Traveler… Sagira I don’t know how much more I can take of this…”

    “I know.” Sagira looked at her sadly, “I shouldn’t have pushed for you to head out here. Maybe we should’ve rested at the tower.”

    Sarah shook her head a little, “It’s fine. I don’t think I’d sleep well there.”

    “Sarah… I know I’m not your Ghost or you know… a really close friend… but I can tell something’s seriously wrong, and it’s more than you just being tired. I won’t tell anyone, I promise, but if you would like to get it off your chest…”

    Sarah waved it off, “I’m fine.”

    “No! You are not fine!” Sagira suddenly shouted and startled the hunter, “You are far from fine! Everyone’s noticed something’s wrong with you! Everyone! They’ve been trying to be a shoulder you can lean on and you keep trying to shoulder it all by yourself. Don’t you try to tell me you’re fine!”

    “Oi! It’s not a big-!”

    “Yes it is because you keep nearly dying! Something is distracting you, whether it’s the time crunch or something else! I don’t want you to die at all Sarah! I don’t know if I can even revive you! You need to do something about it otherwise it’s just going to get worse!”

  Sagira remembered when they first stepped foot into the forest after being banished. She was there with him, through the good and bad, holding each other up when it got bad, and lifting each other up when it got good. She had always been Osiris’ rock, the one constant in the ever expanding world of probabilities. He casted her out through a portal when she was threatened, trying to save her but got blasted by that Vex. The next thing she knew, she was in another ghost’s shell, looking at Ash and Sarah in the EDZ. She was honestly scared for Osiris. He was in there all alone, trying to save the world and holding onto hope that Sarah could pull through and give a miracle. He might even feel the same as Sarah did now.  

    He leaned on her when he needed to. So why didn’t Sarah lean on anyone else when she clearly had to?

    “It’s not a big deal…!” Sarah snapped back, clearly just getting angrier. A light came on the dash, signalling that they were dropping out of hyperspace and heading towards Nessus.

    “This conversation is not over.” Sagira sternly told her.

    “Yes it fucking is.” Sarah muttered.

    As they flew into the atmosphere, the Leviathan’s proximity to the centaur was clearly causing havoc down in certain spots. Areas were flooded, the gravity of the ship pulled on things, but the Leviathan itself hadn’t eaten very much of the planet. The storms that would sometimes rage here seemed to have clear up a bit, thankfully, and Failsafe herself wasn’t affected. Sagira lit up a bit as a voice came through the comms.

    “Hello Chief Officer! I am glad to see you here!” Failsafe chirped.

    “Hey Failsafe…” Sarah couldn’t seem to quite muster a normal tone, and the AI picked up on it right away.

    “Is everything alright?” there was a familiar sound,  _“You really don’t sound well Sarah. Are you sick? Can Guardians even get sick?”_

    “I’m just exhausted Failsafe. Trying to save the world from ending again, that’s all.”

_“Are you sure? Cause if you need to talk…”_

    “I’m fine.” Sarah sternly told her. Sagira wished she had hands so she could shake the woman right now. How could she just turn down help like that when she clearly needed it? “Actually… Failsafe, have you any reports of some really powerful Vex Minds? We need a lot of processing power and we need it a bit more mobile.”

    “Oh yes! A team of Guardians tried to dispatch one in the Tangle, but failed miserably! One was even complaining of losing their Warcliff Coil. I don’t know what that means, but maybe you could even use it. I’ll send you to the coordinates to your Ghost!” There was that sound,  _“I think they were like… Kinderguardians or something?”_

    Sarah managed a small relieved smile, “You’re a blessing. Thank you Failsafe.”

    “You are quite welcome!” The sound chimed again, “ _Though like… seriously. Take a nap or something. You sound awful.”_

     _I feel awful…_  Sarah wanted to say, but the words never left her mouth. She didn’t need to give Sagira any more ammo.

    She landed a short ways away from Failsafe’s direction. She could see down the canyon where Vex were milling about and a small entrance. By now Sagira had taken Ikora off mute, now that Sarah made it clear she didn’t want to talk to anyone about what was bothering her. Sarah slipped down the side of the small crevasse and snuck up behind a rock. She peered over to see that there wasn’t just the normal Vex goblins. There were also those weird black and green harpies floating about as well.

    “They’re from the future. If they’re here…” Sagira trailed off.

    “We don’t have much time.” Sarah gritted her teeth a little. She then shifted over a bit and found her foot hitting something metal. She looked down beside her to see the strangest weapon she had ever seen. She wasn’t even sure what it was at first. It had a large ball on one end with several holes and she could recognize how to fire it, but what in the hell was this thing? Was this the Warcliff Coil that Guardian was complaining about? What did it even do?

    Well, there was only one way to find out.

    She stood up behind the rock and pulled the trigger. She was nearly knocked backwards by the recoil as several small homing rockets came out of the thing and destroyed each Harpy. For a moment, Sagira and Sarah stood there in shock of what just happened before Sarah spoke up.

    “I’m keeping this.”

    “I was about to say, I hope you keep it.” Sagira commented.

    For now the strange rocket launcher went into transmat, out of ammo, and the two of them slipped into the small cave. It was a tight fit in some places, but Sarah was small enough to squeeze through. It led to an open room, and sure enough, there was a Vex Mind in the shape of a Hydra just floating about in there. It had friends of course, but so far they hadn’t noticed Sarah or Sagira.

    “Where is the processer in the Hydra?” Sarah asked as she took out her sniper rifle.

    “If you’re asking if you can shoot it in the eye with your rifle, yes, yes you can.” Sagira replied.

    “That’s all I needed to know.”

    She took aim behind the scope, waiting for just the right time to pull the trigger. Even when she felt this worn down, her aim was on, and she shot it through its eye. It let out a cry before suddenly vanishing into thin air as it tried to get away.

    “Piece of junk!” Sarah growled as she leaped out over cover.

    “Oh no, it’s not getting away! I’ve got a track on it! Let’s go!” Sagira shouted. Sarah dove through enemy fire and through another tight tunnel, following Sagira all the way through. They found it blindly flailing about and shooting in random directions. Sarah took one more shot, and it fell over in a crumpled heap. Sagira began to scan it before transmatting up the processor she needed.

    “Hah! Got it! Now we just need a conflux to connect it to the Vex network!” She chimed.

    “You’re near the well of Echoes. It should work there.” Ikora suddenly instructed through the comms.

    “Right. I’ll take it as you know how to get there Sarah?”

    “With the amount of times that I go through there for Failsafe, I sure hope I do.” Sarah sighed a little.

    It was very clear once Sarah managed to squeeze herself back out of the cave that she knew the area well. Down a small path she slipped into another small space in the side of a wall. Down it went into a more opened tunnel that took them towards a large opened room. Sarah looked up and could s a conflux above their heads, and the way to climb up. Around the outside there was a small ramp, but after that she was climbing on smaller narrower edges. She took her time before each leap, making sure she didn’t make the same mistakes as back in the Forest, and slowly made her way up to the floating platform. Sagira seemed a bit impressed she scaled the entire thing.

    “I hope this does the trick Sarah…” she mused as she wandered over to it. She gently placed the core down where she could connect it. She started to scan the conflux and the core, making sure were both connected. When she tried to load the map however, the core suddenly shook then let out a bang as sparks flew everywhere. Sarah let out a small cry as she shielded herself from the flying debris.

    “What?! No! No no no no no!” Sagira started to cry out, “That overloaded it?! No!”

    Sarah felt her heart sinking. Was there any way to use that map and find Panoptes? Was there any way to stop that awful future? She felt her whole body sink a little as all of that was starting to turn out for nothing. She could feel all of her weariness hit her at once as their hopes were suddenly dashed. If that mind processor died trying to display the map and find Panoptes, then how on earth would they get it to show anything at all?

    “Sarah… I’m running out of ideas here.” Sagira floated over to the hunter. She watched Sarah’s posture sunk down as the Hunter shook her head.

    “I don’t know…” she said honestly, “Fuck I don’t know…”

    This wasn’t her area of expertise. She was a hunter, not a warlock. Even then not a lot of Warlocks had as much knowledge on the Vex. She supposed that in theory, Failsafe could decipher this, but she didn’t want to risk losing the AI. If the core melted down trying to use the file correctly, chances were that Failsafe would too. After all that AI had been through, after finally meeting friends she could talk to, Sarah didn’t want to do that to her. At the same time, the fate of the world was at stake here, time was short, and ideas were lacking.

    The thought of having to resort to using that poor AI like that made tears well up. She was frustrated, tired, feeling defeated by these damned Vex. Her hands balled up into fists and Sagira watched the Hunter shudder, trying to hold even more emotion inwards that threatened to come up.

    “Hold on…” Ikora suddenly piped up, “We’ve been so focused on the threat of the future… we’ve forgotten the past. What if the answer lies there?”

    “W… what?” Sarah managed to choke out past all of her emotions threatening to boil over.

    “What if you found the code that created Panoptes? You could use the Forest against the Vex!”

    “Of course!” Sagira lit right up, “We go back to the moment that lead to Panoptes, run time forward, and use that data to locate it in the present! Oh that’s good Ikora! Osiris level good!”

    Sarah started to smile a little, her hopes being raised up again. This could very well work. If Panoptes’ patterns were always the same, then that was the end of it. They could find him and destroy him.

    “You know, you’re not the Ikora I remember. You’re better.” Sagira complimented.

    “Well, it certainly wasn’t an easy lesson I had to learn to get there. How is Sarah holding up?”

    “She needs a break. I think if she goes any further she’s just going to snap in two.” Sagira quietly told her, “In the emotional way, not the physical way.”

    “Of course. Tell her to come back to the tower and rest. She deserves it after all she’s done.”

    “You hear that?” Sagira asked as she turned towards Sarah, “You are to take a break. Maybe sit in your room, cry a little, yell a little, just something. You’re a mess.”

    “I’ll be fine. I can go to Mercury…” her voice sounded hoarse as she started to walk off.

    “Oh no no no no. You are NOT going to Mercury. You are going home, you are going to properly sleep, and THEN go to Mercury.” Sagira flew right in front of her to stop her. Sarah just growled a bit and started to make her way back down. Once they were on solid ground though, it seemed that Sagira was not done scolding the hunter.

    “What is your problem?! What makes you think that you have to keep going no matter what?! You can stop and take a break! You can breathe a little, cry a little, you don’t have to be tough as nails all the time!”

    “In case you’ve forgotten, we need to stop the world from ending.” Sarah spat back.

    “In case you’ve forgotten, you are in no shape to be doing that!”

    “Will you leave me alone Sagira?!” Sarah stopped and whirled around to shout at the ghost.

    “No! I will not leave you alone! Not until you do as everyone is saying for your own sake!”

    “I’ll be fine Sagira! I’ll live-!”

    “SARAH NAVARRA YOU LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!” Sagira suddenly screeched as loud as she could, startling the Hunter, “YOU ARE GOING BACK TO THAT TOWER AND TAKING A BREAK! YOU ARE GOING TO TALK TO SOMEONE SO YOU CAN FEEL BETTER, AND YOU ARE GOING TO STOP BEING A BRAT! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!”

    Sagira took the stunned silence as a yes.

* * * *

    Sagira had never been in Sarah’s room before. The one thing she noticed right away is that there was a scent of old whiskey in here. She watched Sarah drink a little out of a flask she had on the table before she started to take off all of her gear. She then looked around and noticed a few scattered items. There was a firecracker in here for some reason that was hanging off of the dresser, a couple of knives, a radio that was playing classic rock from before the Golden Age, and, oddly enough, a photo. This one looked like it had been through hell. It looked like it had gotten wet and was folded up a few times, but someone had been very careful ever since and had put it into a frame. She could tell it was Sarah in the photo in front of a tent, holding on a small child, no older than 2. The child had messy short hair and bright blue eyes. It was very obvious that the child was Sarah’s, once upon a time.

    “What was her name?” Sagira asked. Sarah had just pulled a nightgown over herself and she froze midway to grabbing another drink when Sagira had asked. She had almost forgotten she had that photo, the last thing from her previous life.

    “…Cilka.” she quietly responded before grabbing another drink. Admittedly, Sarah did feel a little better now that she was in her room and had her vice. She still felt like hell, but at least now she could lie down in bed on her side, which was exactly what she did. Sagira quietly floated over to her and nestled into some of the free pillow space available.

    “She’s cute. When was the photo taken?”

    Sarah closed her eyes, her body sinking down a little, “A long… long time ago. Back when I wasn’t a Guardian… I was just a mother.”

    “Oh…” Sagira glanced down a little. Things started to slowly make sense now, “I’m sorry…”

    Sarah didn’t say much else, but the grief was there in her face. Sagira looked up at her sadly, wondering just how big this weight she had been dragging around really was.

    “I’m… I’m sure she’d be proud, seeing what her mother’s doing.” Sagira tried to cheer her up, but Sarah just shook her head a little.

    “Do you have any idea…?” Sarah started to mumble, “…how much I want to turn back the clock? Would…. wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the Vex ability to go back in time? I could…. I could go back to that raid. I could go back to when I jumped because it was the only option I had. I… I could….” Sarah started to get choked up as she spoke. She was still trying to hold back the tears threatening to come through, “I could just… pick up where I left off. I could take my baby back, and raise her here. I could maybe make it so the defence was successful and I could’ve raised my child before I became what I am.”

    Sagira floated up a little and shook her shell, “Sarah… you can’t…”

     “I know I can’t!” she shouted. She suddenly sat up in bed, her hands gripping the sheets and she looked at Sagira, “But is it so bad that I want to? I want to have my baby back! I want to at least know what happened to her! I kept wondering if I could bend the Forest to simulate back then… or perhaps find a way to go back and just see what happened to her. I need to know if she lived, and if she didn’t, I need to make sure she did…!”

    “Sarah…” Sagira was at a loss for words to comfort the woman. She settled for just listening instead.

    “Fuck… fuck…” Sarah started to shudder and become choked up, “First Ghaul, now this! I didn’t fucking ask for this! I didn’t ask for some big ball in the sky that does fuck all to bring me back to fight its wars. No one did! If anyone should’ve been given a second chance, it should’ve been her! Not me! What the fuck have I done to end up here? Nothing! I failed at protecting my daughter, so how can this thing expect me to save the damn world from a homicidal maniac of a Vex with a planet size prediction engine?! If it wasn’t for Ash I would’ve still been wasting time at the bar and throwing myself off the wall!”

   “Wait…” Sagira sounded unusually quiet and serious, “You… why? Why did you throw yourself off?”

   “Isn’t it obvious…?” Sarah let out a sniffle as she raised her hands up to her face, “I got bad Sagira, real bad, and I didn’t even notice. I drank myself stupid some nights and would toss myself off, hoping my ghost wouldn’t bring me back. It’s a wonder I didn’t do it more, because I used to carry my flask around when I hunted alone. Ash stopped me from doing that. She won’t let me get that drunk, she won’t let me carry the flask… she just… started to make…”

   Everything a bit better, everything a bit more bearable… Sagira came to that conclusion on her own. The two seemed close.

   “She’s not going to survive this future, is she?” Sarah asked, “Neither is Gale, Alex, or even Cid. I’m going to be honest, I still don’t really care what happens to me, but I really… really care what happens to them. I don’t want them to be wandering in the dark alone, waiting for the Vex to snuff them out. Ash hates the cold… and it would so cold and…”

    Thinking about it just made more tears well up. Small cries came out of Sarah’s throat that she tried to hold back. It was clear there was more behind that dam she put up to suppress her emotions.

  “Just… just let it out ok?” Sagira gently told her. And just as Sagira suspected she would, Sarah simply broke. She knelt over and sobbed into her sheets. The cloth muffled her wails. She heard so much muffled crying in there. She was scared to fail, scared she would be too late, scared she wasn’t good enough to take down Panoptes. She was scared that all of this was for nothing. She was grieving over the loss of her last life, terrified of what could happen to the few friends she made. Sagira nudged her a little, reminding her that she was here. She was not alone, even in this moment of weakness.

    It was hard to see Guardians cry. She couldn’t remember a time where Osiris ever did, but she could remember a time where Ikora once did. It was the hardest thing to witness, the bright eyed student crying because she was scared. Ikora was tough, could endure the worst of trials, but when she first started, she didn’t know how to suppress her emotions. Now she was watching a Guardian who had so much weight in her heart finally let it out. Sagira wondered what it was like to cry and let her emotions out, because she could feel an odd feeling in her eye. She wanted to cry too. She was also frightened of the future, frightened that she wouldn’t be able to save Osiris, or he would die before she could get to him, but she had no way of letting that out. The only thing she could do was be close to the Hunter, to take some comfort in the presence of her new friend.

    “See…?” Sagira asked as Sarah finally started to calm down. Seeing the Hunter begin to gather herself made her feel better as well, “Don’t you feel better now?”

    Sarah gave a small nod before looking up at Sagira. She reached up and tried to dry her tears as best as she could.

    “I…. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was…”

    “An ass? I hope so.” Sagira replied before nudging her a little, “It’s ok Sarah. I forgive you. Just get some sleep ok? You need it, and you should be able to sleep a little better now. It’s going to be ok, you’ll see.”

    Sarah gave a small nod as she lay back down. She felt Sagira nestle in the pillow beside her, making herself comfortable.

    “I thought ghosts didn’t need to sleep…” Sarah mumbled.

    “No, but sometimes it’s nice…” Sagira replied. “…makes me miss Osiris though…”

    “We’ll find him Sagira… I promise.”

    With that, the two quietly slept, forgetting their worries for at least a little while.


	8. The Tower of Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> U thought

   “How much time do you think we have left?”

    “Honestly, not a lot.”

    Sarah stood beside Cid in the Lighthouse the next day. Both of them folded their arms as they watched the Gate to the Forest intently.

    “How many of them come through?” Sarah asked.

    “Almost too many for me to handle anymore. There’s Vex from the present and future flooding through, and it takes everything I have just to keep them out of this Lighthouse. I’ve told Vance and the Followers so many times that they either need to lock down or get the hell out but…” Cid sighed, “They won’t budge.”

    “Of course not.” Sarah frowned a little, “And this is our last shot.”

    “We can do this.” Sagira piped up, “I know I can get us there. I’ve been there before.”

    “Do you want me to come with you?” Cid asked.

    “I’ll be fine. I have a new toy that will clear out the Vex in a hurry in there.” Sarah replied with a small smile.

    “A…. new toy?” Cid looked at them with a raised brow.

    “Ohohoho, you haven’t seen this thing. We’ll show you after.” Sagira giggled.

    “Hello? Is this working?” Gale’s voice suddenly piped up through the comms.

    “It is, good to hear from you Gale.” Sarah spoke up.

    “Great! I have good news! Sagira’s shell is repaired! Next time you come to the tower we can try to transfer her back to it!”

    “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while!” Sagira cheered, “I can finally get out of this shell. Poor Ghost has been sleeping for too long.”

    Sarah sighed in relief, “Good. After we get this thing I’m going to need all hands on deck for Panoptes. You can bring it over then.”

    “Alright! Good luck Sarah!”

    Sarah looked over to Cid and gave each other a nod. Sarah then put her mask on and went out the door to towards the Gate, who what she hoped would be the second last time.

  “Ready Sagira?” Sarah asked as they got close to the gateway, “It’s going to be rough when we go into that simulation.”

    “Ready Sarah.” Sagira replied firmly. The two of them traversed through the gate, through the hall, and into the Forest once again. Sarah didn’t need to wait for a path forward this time, and leaped onto the first island she saw. Through the battle simulations, the weather simulations, the odd simulations, she dove through them as quickly as she could to get to their tower. Sagira flew right ahead of her, showing the way, and the Hunter kept pace. The Vex seemed to be growing agitated, as there were far more battle simulations now. They were trying to stop her, whatever she was up to. They couldn’t seem to slow her down however as the Hunter ran up the stairs and through the gate into the hallway.

    “You know, the Vex have been two steps ahead of us so far, but we actually have a chance to surprise them! That’s impressive.” Sagira commented as she flew beside Sarah.

    “Going back in time to take their precious algorithm? Fuckers won’t know what hit them.” Sarah replied. Sagira didn’t need to see her face to know she was grinning.

    “You know Sarah, I might just miss being your ghost. Just a little.”

    “It’s been one hell of a ride, hasn’t it?”

    “That is has.”

    Through the gate they came to the Golden fields of past Mercury. The tower that would soon form the Forest was in place, and Sarah could see the Past Vex roaming about. They were white with blue lights for eyes, far more pretty looking than their later counter parts. She wondered for a moment what happened to them, but then decided it didn’t matter.

    “Want to bet it’s at the top of that tower?” Sarah asked.

     “I’m sure it is.” Sagira nodded.

     The Vex already seemed to have caught onto her being there. Their thin frames did not hold up well to Sarah’s gun fire as she quickly cleared out the small milling crowd. She leaped onto one of those glowing platforms that sent her further towards the tower. She could see the Vex had already begun terraforming the planet beneath her feet, noting the familiar blocks beneath the grass that now struggled to exist there.  She could see however as she flew that they were already forming temporary blockades for Sarah. They were trying to slow her down.

    “They’re scrambling.” Sarah told her, “We’ve really got them riled up now.”

    “All we can do is blast our way in. I see the conflux over there!” Sagira shouted. Sarah aimed her gun on the way back down to the ground at the small conflux and destroyed it. She then watched the barrier go down as she ran towards the next launch pad over.

    “Keep moving Sarah! They’re going to have more Vex blocking us!” Sagira shouted.

    The Hunter leaped across another gap and sprinted for the next launch pad. The first unfortunate harpy to get in her way was knifed, and the second one shot in the face. Goblins chased after her, but didn’t last long beneath an assault of bullets. There was a Hydra now right in front of the launch pad, but she had something for that. Instead of her sniper on her back, she had the Warcliff Coil, with extra ammo this time. All she had to do was take aim and let the rockets to the rest. The troublesome foe fell over in a heap of scrap metal in seconds, allowing for her to switch to her gun and shoot the next conflux in one smooth motion.

    She jumped onto the next pad, and it took her into a valley just before the tower. There were two confluxes here, one protecting a Vex Minotaur and another blocking their way forward. Vex swarmed through here, and Sarah didn’t have the time nor patience to fight them all. She instead ran straight at the crowd and made a leap right over it. She rolled when she landed and took that small window of time to shoot the conflux stopping her from going forward. Once destroyed, she made a mad dash into the tower. They didn’t follow her inside. Instead as she started to climb the stairs, they sent Fanatics down them. Stupid, she thought. They blew each other up more than they blew up their target. She fired at one in the middle, and once it exploded, it caused a chain reaction of explosions, killing all of them. There was no time to stop, nothing could slow Sarah down. She needed to get to the top.

    It was clear they were starting to get scared. There were a lot more up in the small opening of the tower waiting for her. She jumped up and literally ran on their heads to get to the next conflux and shoot it down. The Minotaurs couldn’t shoot her, the Goblins couldn’t stop her rush to the top. Sagira found herself cheering the hunter on as she didn’t allow herself to stop for anything. Onto another launch pad Sarah soared above the Vex below and into the upper section of the tower.

    “I can’t believe you pulled that off! Keep going!” Sagira cheered.

    Sarah let out a breath and started her sprint again. Now it was going up more stairs, and dealing with whatever they threw at her. The first thing was fanatics, but she took care of those in a couple shots. The wall opened up as she got higher, and there was another conflux blocking her way along with the Vex. They even tried to grab onto the hunter as she went by, just for any hope of slowing her down, but she was far too quick, and shot the next defense they had up. She jumped onto the launch pad and went soaring up another level. A hydra was here, but it met the same fate as the last one. It stood no chance against the rockets of the Warcliff Coil, and Sarah was free to jump onto the last two launch pads, and make it to the second highest level of the tower.

    The final obstacle from the top was a strange looking Vex. Sagira called it a Root Mind. It floated above a platform on the outside of the tower, guarded by a conflux. It didn’t seem to have any way of moving, and was a rather strange shape. There was a metal orb in the middle that was clearly its eye, and a triangle frame on both sides of it.

    It didn’t matter though. It was in Sarah’s way. It had to die.

    She shot the conflux, and the creature lost its shield. It sounded angry, but Sarah hardly cared about that. She took out the Warcliff Coil and fired a round of rockets into its massive body. It let out a shriek of pain, and suddenly Sarah could hear other Vex being summoned onto their floor.

    Of course it couldn’t have been easy. The Root Mind started to spin its platform around the tower, shooting a powerful lazer at Sarah. She found herself diving behind cover, trying to take out the smaller Vex first before she could shoot more at the Mind. Of course, when said cover phased in and out of existence, it was very difficult. Sarah had far too many close calls to count in only a matter of moments, trying to dodge fire from all sources.

    Sarah noticed the platform had stopped, and decided that this was her best chance. She shot a void arrow right at its eye, and once it expanded and grabbed hold of it, she fired another round of rockets at it. It let out another shriek of pain as the frame bent and broke beneath the pressure, but it wasn’t dead yet. Sarah looked beside her to see a Minotaur had decided to show up. She only had one round of rockets left, and she needed to save them for the Root Mind. She started to shoot at it, only for it to teleport in close and stomp its foot down, sending her flying across the battlefield. She skidded to a stop near the edge, and quickly got back up. She ran back towards it, sliding beneath a charged shot and leaped up on its shoulder. Her knife pierced metal and severed the head right off. She kicked off of it and reached back for the Warcliff Coil. With a glare, and a loud yell, she fired her last set of rockets at the Mind. It let out a horrendous sound as its body collapsed onto the platform, now in pieces.

    “Holy shit Sarah…” Sagira, who had been hiding in her hood the entire time, floated out to look over the carnage, “You did it!”

    “Yeah…” Sarah huffed, starting to feel exhaustion finally hit her, “Somehow another…”

    They looked up as platforms appeared above where the Root Mind used to be. Quickly they climbed up them to get to the top. At last, they could see a small place for Sagira to tap into the network, and get what they had been after. Past that little slot was a small Radiolarian lake, proving even more that this was the right place.

    “Alright, let’s get what we came for and get out. I’m sure they’re pissed.” Sarah told Sagira. The Ghost gave a nod and floated over to the slot and placing herself in it.

    “Scanning…” Sagira mumbled out loud, “Isolating Panoptes patterns… overlaying them onto map… and… got him! He always ends up in the same Coordinates! It’s over! This is how we beat the Vex!”

    Sarah grinned ear to ear, “We’re coming for you Panoptes…”

    She suddenly heard a familiar burst and looked up. One of the Reflections was staring up at the now visible algorithm.

    “A new future…?” It asked quietly, “I must inform Osiris!”

    It burst once again and made a mad dash out of the simulation. Sarah smile even more. She hoped that meant Osiris would soon be there to meet Panoptes with them, and she could reunite him and Sagira.

    “Wait! Sarah!” Sagira suddenly shouted, “I-I can’t move!”

    Sarah was suddenly brought down from her high when she heard Sagira cry out. She reached over and tried to yank her out of the slot, only to get a nasty shock from it.

    “H-Hang on! Let me try to…!” Sarah shouted as she tried again, only to get another shock.

    “W-Wait!” Sagira screamed back at her. Panic was filling her voice, “It’s a defensive subroutine!” the ground suddenly began to shake beneath them, and Sarah nearly fell over from losing her balance, “New reality branches forming! No! No!”

    Sarah looked up and let out a scream when she saw what was manifesting. Panoptes had found them once again, and it was very clear he was eyeing Sagira. She reached over in a panic with both hands to try and rip Sagira out of the slot, but the force of the shock knocked her back.

    “NO NO NO! STOP!” Sagira cried out, “HELP ME! SARAH HELP ME!”

    “SAGIRA!” Sarah bellowed before noticing a shadow over her. When she looked up she saw his hand reaching down. She started to turn to try and get out of the way, but his thin clawed fingers grabbed hold of her much smaller body. She screamed, struggled against Panopted as he lifted her up and over the lake.

    “SARAH! NO! LEAVE HER ALONE!”

    Sarah watched as Panoptes raised the other hand that glowed with that Vex like pattern. She then watched as it dragged the spirit of Sagira from out of her ghost’s shell. It didn’t have a form, it was far too panicked to make one, but Sagira’s screaming as she was dragged out was enough to let Sarah know it was her.

    “STOP IT!” Sarah bellowed at Panoptes, “STOP IT! LEAVE HER ALONE! LET HER GO!”

    “SARAH! HELP ME! HELP ME-!” Sagira’s voice still screamed, but that was the last thing Sarah would hear. Panoptes suddenly crushed the Hunter in his hand. It was an instant death, felt by the few that were close to Sarah.  Blood dripped down through Panoptes fingers and into the pool below. He then opened up a gateway that would lead back out to Mercury where he dropped the Hunter and casted the shell off too, believing the shell to be Lightless, and Sarah dead.

    Her body landed gracelessly in the sands of Mercury. Panoptes now had their key into the Forest, and was now running away with it.


	9. One Last Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah: ROUND 2 BITCH LET'S GO

    “Sarah? Sarah are you there?”

    Sarah slowly opened her eyes at the sound of her ghost’s voice. Her vision is blurry at first, but she could make out the shape of her ghost floating above her, making sure she was ok.

    “Oh thank goodness! For a moment I wondered if I was too late!” Her ghost chirped. Sarah let out a groan as she slowly got up. She raised a hand to her face and noticed her mask was gone. Her ghost most likely took it off to make sure she was alive and breathing. As she stood up and looked around, she started to get a sense of where she was. She was back at the Lighthouse, alive again, and Sagira…

    Her eyes widened as she whirled around to face the Gate. No. Nonononono they had Sagira! Sagira was taken from them, and now they couldn’t get back into the Forest!

    “Sarah? What’s going on? How did we get to Mercury? What happened to you?” her ghost asked.

    “Oh fuck.” Sarah raised her hands to her head, clearly panicked, “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, nonononono this is bad! Oh Light this is bad! Really fucking bad!”

    “Sarah, I don’t understand.” her ghost looked around, “The last thing I remember we were in the EDZ. I was working with that machine and then, bam, nothing!”

    “Look, we don’t have time. We need to figure out how to get into that forest!” Sarah shouted and pointed at it.

    “What’s the big hurry again? Oh I feel so strange…” her ghost looked down a little, “It’s like all the furniture has been moved around in the house, except the house is my head! Ugh…. accessing memory core…”

    Sarah didn’t have time for that. She started to walk up the stairs towards the Gate. Was it possible to brute force her way in? She wasn’t sure, but she had to try.

    “Huh… you’ve been busy.” Her ghost suddenly spoke up and flew to be in front of her, “Correction! You’ve been busy without me!”

    “Oi, can we talk about this when the world isn’t about to…?”

    “How could you do that?! You let Sagira be your ghost and take over my body?!”

    “If you looked in those files a bit more, you’d notice I didn’t like the idea, and you’d notice the world is about to fucking end, again!” Sarah shouted back, “Trust me, that was the last thing I wanted, but we didn’t have a choice, but now Sagira is kidnapped, and we lost our way into the Forest!”

    Her ghost seemed to want to argue, but she realized now really wasn’t the time. Instead she started to scan herself a bit more and perked up a bit. Before she could say anything though, she watched Sarah try to brute force her way into the Forest, only to be thrown back down the stairs on her backside.

    “Wait, Sarah!” her ghost shouted, flying down towards her as the hunter got back up, “There’s something else here! Encoded holoimages, big ones, definitely Vex. There’s a separate folder in here with a set of coordinates for the Infinite Forest. If we can just get past the Gate, we can still stop this Panoptes!”

    “Getting past the gate is the hard part. “ Sarah gritted her teeth as she stood back up, “But I’m not fucking giving up yet.”

    “Sarah!” someone called from behind them. She turned around to see Cid running towards her, and it gave her an idea. Warlocks were far better at manipulating Light than hunters. If anyone was going to brute force their way into the Gate, it would be three Warlocks with their powers combined.

    “Are you ok?! What happened?!” Cid shouted only for Sarah to run up to him and grab his wrist.

    “I’ll explain in the Lighthouse! Make a list of things you need from the tower. We have a battle to win.” Sarah commanded. He had no intentions of questioning her as he followed her back. When they got through the portal, they could hear Vance going on about something to Ikora over the large radio. Vance turned to greet them, only for Sarah to bellow at him.

    “Don’t have time for your shit Vance! Get off the feed and let me talk to Ikora, now!” Sarah yelled at him. Cid had to admit, she had quite the scary look on her face, and he’s pretty sure he had never seen her this angry before. Vance didn’t even argue and stopped talking to Ikora, letting Sarah talk. The hunter almost pushed the man aside as she stormed up to the radio.

    “Sarah! What happened?! Ash, Gale, and Alexander say you died!” Ikora sounded like she could barely keep herself calm.

    “Panoptes happened. That thing has Sagira and dropped me out of the Forest.” She could hear everyone on the other side groan and panic a little.

    “Oh no…” Gale groaned, “Now what?!”

    “I can’t brute force my way through that gate, no way. But I’m thinking a couple warlocks giving everything they have might be able to blast our way through.”

    “…I think I can arrange that.” Ikora mused, “I’m coming over there too then, along with everyone else. We need all hands on deck! Any news from Osiris?”

    “He’s aware of where Panoptes is, and so is my ghost. Knowing him, he’s going to try to fight him on his own to get Sagira back. He’s going to die Ikora. That thing is powerful.”

    “Then we have no time to waste! Everyone gear up now! Do you need anything?”

    “I need rockets for the Warcliff Coil, Sagira’s shell, and whatever Cid needs. Bring a lot of ammo, and maybe a few extra guns. We have a battle to win.”

* * * *

    The six of them were gathered outside of the gate. Ash had never seen Sarah so determined before, standing beside Ikora who seemed to be concentrating energy. The sands blew by so calmly here, it was hard to imagine that they were at the point of no return. Whether it was Panoptes, or them, someone’s future was about to end today. Ash looked over as everyone made sure their guns were loaded and could feel the light dancing quietly about them.

    “What are you thinking Ikora?” Sarah asked quietly.

    “It took Osiris years of study to find a way to open the Gate.” Ikora sighed as she closed her eyes, “We don’t have years, so…”

    Suddenly they could feel a rush of Void energy all around them. They were very quickly reminded in that moment of why Ikora was the Warlock Vanguard as she floated up into the air, gathering up all the energy she could into her hands. She then fired a beam of pure Void energy that ripped open the barrier stopping them from getting in. The beam split into three, pulling it open so they could pass through.

    “Go!” Ikora shouted, “I can’t hold it for long!”

    None of them hesitated. They all dashed inside the transition hall and followed Sarah into the Forest.

    “We have to get to Panoptes before Osiris does, which means we’re taking some fast and reckless ways there.” Sarah told them as they had to wait on the edge for the first island, “Without Sagira, we all know what’s going to happen.”

    “Lead on Sarah.” Ghost translated, “We’ll be right behind you.”

    “Side note, when the world isn’t about to end, can we come back? This is really cool.” Ash asked. Sarah let out a bit of a chuckle.

    “I figured you’d like this place.” Sarah then looked over at her ghost, “You ready?”

    “I am.” She nodded, “Let’s go defeat Panoptes.”

    The first island manifested and Sarah made the leap. She could see the way was full of battle simulations. Sarah knew this was all in place just to slow them down. As she dove through the islands and over the gaps, she could hear the carnage behind her. Anything that got in her group’s way was very quickly being shoved aside. Sarah noticed that it was getting darker as they ran forward, ducking under fire and leaping over enemies. She could see the tower that her ghost was leading her to, and without fear, she leaped over the gap onto the other side. When she turned around, she could see the others right behind her, all landing safely on the tower. She waved them forward and they ran into the transition hall.

    “No pressure or anything guys, but we’re only getting one shot at this. If we lose Panoptes here, it’s over.” Sarah’s ghost spoke up, “So no one die in there, ok?”

    They all nodded and looked at the last gate before they would face Panoptes. Without another word, they all ran towards it and jumped through. They came to a large space, enclosed by two walls on either side but the one across being open to them. It was a huge battlefield they were stepping into with plenty of cover, but was eerily quiet.

    “OI! PANOPTES!” Sarah bellowed, “I KNOW YOU’RE HERE! COME FIGHT ME YOU COWARD!”

    Almost right on cue, the massive creature rose up from the clouds below across from them.  The others who had not seen him before found themselves taken aback as they gawked at it. Sarah stood there, looking up at him, challenging him. It let out an awful shriek as it looked directly at Sarah. It then started to speak, strangely enough, and Sarah’s ghost perked up a little as she listened.

    “It’s talking to you Sarah… He’s saying ‘Sarah Navarra, I know why you’ve come. You should reconsider your stance.’”

    “Not interested tin can.” Sarah growled as she raised her weapon to it. He then weaved together his arms, summoning forth an army of Vex. These Goblins and Harpies didn’t last very long against the onslaught of bullets that came from all five Guardians. The two hunters dove into the fray, slicing heads off and stabbing them in the eye, while the other three cleaned up the mess. Panoptes quickly floated back away from them, and the launch pad he was suppressing suddenly roared to life. Sarah jumped on without hesitation while the others followed. They went soaring to a floating island where Panoptes summoned forth Fallen to slow them down.

    Panoptes started to talk again, “Now he’s saying ‘We can give you what you always desired.’” Sarah’s ghost piped up.

    “Fuck off you scrap heap!” Sarah yelled back up at it as she knifed the Fallen in the face. Panoptes floated away from them as they jumped on another launch pad to a different island. Now it was Cabal being summoned to slow them down.

    “He says ‘I can give you the life you want.’”

    “Tell him to shut the hell up!”

    The Cabal went down with little trouble. To the next Island they flew, with Hive now waiting for them.

    “He says… ‘I can give you back your daughter.’”

    “SHUT UP ALREADY!” Sarah screamed right at Panoptes, “YOU CAN’T GIVE HER BACK!”

    The Hive were all shot to death, and they finally soared towards something more solid. It was another large battlefield, but Panoptes did not summon anything right away. Instead, it spoke again.

    “But…” Sarah’s ghost for a moment stuttered when she tried to translate, “But I can. Let me… show you…”

    Just as her ghost finished saying that sentence, suddenly a Vex forcefield formed around Sarah and her ghost, trapping them inside. For a second Sarah didn’t even realize it had happened, but once she did, she started to panic. She let out a scream as she tried to shoot her way out, and quickly realized that wasn’t going to work.

    “SARAH!” Ash screamed and ran up to her. She started to bang her fists against the forcefield, trying somehow to save her friend trapped inside. Sarah started pounding on the forcefield as well.

    “Ash! Help me! Please help!” Sarah cried out. She could hear the sound of a pulse grenade and a Solar grenade being thrown at the barrier near her feet, but these things did not break it either. She noticed then that Vex tech, the solid kind, was weaving its way around her little cage. She started to pound even more feverently against the barrier, screaming for help.

     “I’ll get you out! I promise! Just hang in there!” Ash shouted at Sarah as the tech weaved around the barrier. She felt Alexander pull her away as the last of it covered Sarah’s face. She could still hear Sarah inside, sobbing and trying to find a way out. They then noticed it was growing along the side now, expanding bit by bit. Enraged, Ash shot a few bullets up at Panoptes himself but all of them bounced harmlessly off.

    “GIVE HER BACK!” Ash screamed up at it, “GIVE ME BACK MY FRIEND!”

    It started to talk again, but this time Ash summoned Chie who was also fluent in Vex talk.

    “Do you not want to see what I can offer you?”

    Sarah was in the dark at this point. She kept trying to punch her way out, but nothing was working. She then heard the creak of a door and turned towards it. There was now a bright light in the shape of a doorway. Nervously chewing on her lower lip, and seeing no other way out, Sarah walked forward and through the door.

    When she came out, she found herself at the tower. She looked around on the empty wall, then looked up at the Traveler. It wasn’t awake here. Perhaps Panoptes was going off of Sagira’s memory, which would make this a long time ago. She and Sagira had been so busy it wasn’t surprising she didn’t get a look at the Traveler now. The sun was shining here, and it was quiet, wonderfully quiet… she never did like it when it was bustling.

 _No._  She thought as she shook her head. This wasn’t right. A quiet tower wasn’t possible. It had people, Civilians, Guardians, it had life. This just seemed so empty, so dead…

    “Mommy?”

    Sarah let out a gasp and turned around. There, standing in front of her, was a little girl, no older than two. Sarah felt her heart hammering in her chest as she took in the little girl’s features. They were Cilka’s, this child looked exactly like her at first glance. Those bright blue eye, those curls…

    “Oh… oh no. Not this again.” Her ghost whispered, “Why must you be so cruel Panoptes?”

    “C…Cilka…?” Sarah asked, still not daring to believe in her. One part of her mind was telling her that it might as well be her daughter. She looked like her, it acted like a little girl but…

    Panoptes spoke again, “Do you see now?” Sarah’s ghost translated, “I can give you a life that you want. I can simulate a life for you, with your daughter, forever and ever. So long as I know of it, I can make this life however way you want. Look at her, she might as well be your daughter. She looks the same. Isn’t that better than not living with her at all? I can even simulate these people outside for you too, if you want. I can give you a perfect life.”

    “Mommy.” Cilka spoke up again, looking up at Sarah. Sarah didn’t hug her however, or smile. This felt wrong. All of it felt wrong. This wasn’t her daughter. Her voice sounded wrong. Some small details were a bit off about her. She started to glare at the girl as she found more and more imperfections. She was a doll, nothing more. Cilka did not smile, nor laugh, nor try to come up to her and hold her hand. This was so wrong on so many levels.

    “Sarah…?” Her ghost asked. Sarah’s hands balled up into fists.

    “This isn’t my daughter.” She hissed, “That… that thing is not my daughter!”

    Panoptes started to speak again, “I can make her more like your daughter if you teach me. Besides, don’t you want to be a mother again, and not a Guardian? Isn’t this better than risking your life every day for those fools?” Sarah’s ghost almost didn’t want to translate that.

   It was true, deep down. She did want to be a mother again. She did want her baby back in her arms, but she had finally started to come the realization that it simply was not possible. What was done, was done, and she couldn’t go back and take her child. This life as a Guardian had been hell, but it came with something she didn’t expect over the last few years: friends, a family. It started with Ash, who managed to weave her way into Sarah’s cold heart, and then it expanded to Cid, to Gale, to Alexander, and she was… happy. She liked them. They made her happy. They had been through so much hell together, fought so much (even each other at times) but now there was no one else she rather go through anything with. They tried so hard to help her through the worst times, and she had been pushing them away, trying to take it all on by herself, too prideful to ask for help with an age old problem.

    And right now, they needed her out there. She could now hear something beyond the fake sky. She could hear Ash’s voice, but couldn’t make out her begging Sarah not to go through with Panoptes offer. If she went through with this, she would be abandoning her family to the hellish nightmare future Panoptes had in store. As she began to think about what it would do to them, she felt something inside her twist and snap. Sarah reached up to take off her mask and handed it to her ghost. She wanted Panoptes to see how angry she was.

    “How… fucking dare you.” Sarah turned her gaze to the fake sky with a glare, “You think that you can simulate my daughter? My daughter is dead! You can never replace her! You can never mimic who she was! You can never simulate my family! You can’t simulate my daughter, Ash, Alexander, Cid, Gale, none of them you can ever replace! You kidnapped my friend! You’re about to destroy everything I give a damn about! And you know what? Fuck you! Fuck you for trying to toy with me like this! Fuck you for mocking my daughter with this doll!”

    Sarah turned away from her daughter completely as Void energy danced about her now. It seemed like this had been the thing that pushed the Hunter over the edge. She had never truly embraced the light, but now she was prepared to hold onto it on the way to hell if it meant stopping Panoptes.

    “I will not abandon everyone to your future! I will not let my fireteam rot out there! And you know what else? I’m not going to let anyone else fuck with me like this again! I am more than a mother! I am a Guardian, a Hunter! I’ve been a real shit one, but that’s going to change, and the first one on my shit list, is YOU.”

    Sarah summoned her bow, but this time the arrow was filled to the brim in Void energy. She fired it off and it hit the wall, cracking the entire simulation. When it expanded into a tether, the entire thing shattered into tiny pieces, and what she now faced was her four friends who were staring at her in awe. She looked up at Panoptes with a fierce look. The creature was reeling now, frightened that his ruse had not worked. Even more so that there was Void energy surrounding the Hunter and making her look even more frightening to him.

    “There’s only room in the future for one of us, and it isn’t you.” Sarah told him firmly.

    “Sarah…!” Ash cheered as she witnessed her friend blooming right in front of her eyes. The wind howled above them, and Sarah stood there like a rock. She was not afraid of him. She was not afraid of him summoning more puppets to slow them down. She wasn’t alone in this. She wasn’t going to hold back either. This was the best she felt in years. She felt like Void energy was pumping through her veins, her cold hatred fuelling that swirling light inside.

    Panoptes summoned forth more Fallen all across their battle field. With no hesitation, the five of them ran forward to meet the resistance. Sarah was just as quick, but now even deadlier with that knife. She was quick to stab one in the chest, and then whirl around to slice another’s throat open. She could hear the sound of gunfire around her as simulated blood fell on her clothes and on her face. She felt so alive in that moment, listening to the singing of battle around her. She could hear Ash throw a knife in a dreg’s face and turn around to shoot another in the head. She could hear the Sunshot exploding rounds and the fire burning away her enemies. She could hear a sword being drawn and gracefully cutting away everything that stood in his path. She could hear the smashing of hammers, the gunfire taking care of anything that wasn’t foolish enough to get close.

    Panoptes seemed infuriated that his puppets went down so quickly. He raised his arms now, and Sarah could feel that familiar pain of Arc energy from an unstable simulation.

     “No no no no!” her ghost shrieked, “He’s deleting us from the Forest! Chie! Winter! Charon! Ghost! Help me stop him!”

    The four other ghosts came out of hiding and all tried to override the frequency with no luck. Sarah clenched her teeth as she considered trying to make a dash at him and climb up him. She was just about to but she felt Alexander grab her wrist before she could do something so reckless. What other choice did they have though? If they didn’t do something quick, everything was lost!

    “PANOPTES! FACE ME!” Osiris’s voice suddenly boomed out over them. They watched as reflections came rushing down and when Panoptes’ hands tried to clap together, Osiris, the real Osiris, was there stopping them from going together with a forcefield.

    “About time you showed up old man!” Sarah yelled at him. She could still feel the Arc energy tearing away at her, but gritted past the pain. She noticed out of the corner of her eye a small pillar that formed with a conflux in it. It was probably showing because Panoptes couldn’t complete his circuit.

    “Listen! I’ll hold it as long as I can!” Osiris sounded like he was under a lot of strain, “You must lower its defences! Overload him with something!”

    It was obvious what to do as she whirled around to Gale, “Alright! Your time to shine! See that tower?” Sarah pointed it at it, and didn’t need to say anything else. Gale ran towards it and put both hands on it. She let out a yell from deep in her lungs as she called upon the storm and sent the energy straight into the pillar and into the conflux. It was already unstable, and the massive surge of energy Gale gave it was more than enough to cause a break down. Panoptes suddenly had a small explosion near its eye and he lowered his hands down, stopping the deletion and causing the simulation to become stable again.  The creature lowered its head down as the casing around his eye opened up. This was their chance to cause some real damage.

    “Cid! Alexander!” Sarah shouted, and the boys didn’t even need to be told what to do. As Osiris flew up, he would watch the Dawnblade and the Sunbreaker both call forth their fires. Alexander threw in his hammers, Cid threw wave after wave of fire in there, until Panoptes managed to get a hold of himself and knocked all of them back to the other side of the battlefield. It rose up again, the eye clearly damaged as the case shut around it, and it summoned more puppets to fight them. This time it was Hive, and there was no mistaking the screaming Thralls.

    “You keep Panoptes off of us, we’ll deal with these things!” Sarah shouted up at Osiris.

    “Be careful!” Osiris shouted back down, “We can’t afford to lose any one of you!”

    Sarah ran for the crowd with the Warcliff coil. When she fired off, it took out a good chunk of the crowd. She then watched Gale summon forth a storm and tore through all of them like they were paper. Sarah could feel that this was partly fuelled by her hatred of the Hive, of the wizards, and it only added to exhilaration of the entire battle. She looked up to see Panoptes wave his arms again, and could feel the Arc tearing away at her, and once again Osiris came rushing down to hold him off.

    “Your time in the Infinite Forest ends now!” Osiris shouted up at it as it clapped down to try and complete the circuit, only to be met with Osiris’ shield. Gale could see a new pillar forming and rushed straight for it, giving it a good shock that overloaded Panoptes once again. As the eye came down, Ash and Sarah were both ready for it. Ash looked over and started smiling so wide when she saw the look on Sarah’s face when she was about to fire the Warcliff Coil into that eye. She was excited, she was fully into the battle, fully alive in it, and she was having the strange sense of fun that came with it. Ash fired off her shot from her Golden gun, and it was beautifully surrounded by the rockets from the Warcliff Coil. Panoptes let out a horrendous screech as he reeled back.

   “I fucking love this thing!” Sarah shouted as she watched Panoptes jerk away from them, smoke coming out of his eye as the cover slid back over it. Suddenly the mind started to float away, trying to get away from the Guardians.

    “After him!” Osiris shouted and waved his hand. A launch pad manifested and the five Guardians jumped right onto it. They soared over to the last floating island, where the Vex were waiting for them. Panoptes seemed to be trying to recover from the damage all of them did to him, screeching and holding its eye in pain.

    “We got him on the ropes, don’t let up!” Ghost translated for Alexander. They had no intentions to. Sarah could feel her heart beating to the sound of war around her. The sound of gun fire, her body moving about to dodge incoming fire the sounds of fanatics exploding, all of it spurred her on. Whatever Panoptes hoped to do with this small army was turning out to be useless, as they gunned them down so quickly.

   At least, that’s what Sarah thought at first.

   She felt the Arc tear at her body one last time. Osiris rushed in to stop it, but clearly something was very wrong. They heard a crack when Panoptes slammed his hands down onto the shield, and they could now see it starting to form. The pillar wasn’t manifesting either.

    “He won’t hold out much longer!” Ghost shouted. Gale and Cid looked at each other, and gave a nod. They ran towards Osiris, arc energy sparking out of Gale, and Cid’s wings started to spread.

   “Cid! Gale!” Sarah yelled, “What are you doing?!”

  “Buying time!” Cid shouted back before they leaped out to Panoptes. Gale grabbed one hand while Cid grabbed the other. They then summoned all the Light they could muster sent it through their bodies. Panoptes let out a screech as he was suddenly shocked by a thousand volts and burned by a blazing fire. It was still fighting Osiris, but it was harder for it to push down onto him. They couldn’t keep that output up for long however. This wouldn’t buy them a lot of time.

   They heard things being summoned behind them, and they whirled around to see Vex on the march towards them. Alexander and Ash looked at each other then to Sarah.

    “We’ll hold them off! Find a way to overload it!” Ash shouted at Sarah before the two of them ran into the fray. Sarah was about to protest, but she heard the final pillar being manifested into the world behind her. She clenched her teeth seeing it. The only Arc user was currently trying to hold off Panoptes. Would void work on that? It was doubtful. Even of the corrosive nature of void entered his system, it wouldn’t kill him in time.

    She then looked up and saw something interesting. All of the Arc energy that had been flowing through here now made little balls of it in the air. Without a second thought, Sarah grabbed onto one, even though it caused her immense pain, and ran towards that pillar. She slammed it inside, and looked up to see it had done the trick, and overloaded Panoptes one last time. She watched as the three Warlocks were violently thrown back onto the island while Sarah raced forward. She leaped into the air and for a moment time seemed to slow down as that eye opened up for her to see. She reached back into the Void one last time, putting everything she had into her arrow. The last thing Panoptes would see in his life, was a beautiful arrow being pulled from the void from an intricate bow. Sarah’s eyes bore straight into him as she let it fly into its eye. What she witnessed afterward was a beautiful explosion of Radiolaria and fire. As she came down, she reached out into the explosion for something she knew would be there.

    For a moment, she did see Sagira in there. Her form was not that of a ghost, but a small woman. It was hard to really make out the details in the fire and radiolarian flying everywhere. She could however make out a hand reaching out for Sarah’s, and when she grabbed on, she felt it drawing out what little void light she had left to hold onto with.

    “Sarah…?” She heard Sagira call.

    “Told you I’d get you back to Osiris…”

    Sarah placed both hands around the spirit as it returned to a small ball of light. In her hands, surrounded by a gentle void, was Sagira. The explosion started to clear, and she could see she was falling and was about to go past the platforms. She could see someone sprinting to the edge and jumping off, spreading their wings as they came down. It wasn’t Cid. He was human looking, a different build, with dark blue strands around the collar and that silly beak helm…

    “OSIRIS!” Sagira shouted as Sarah felt consciousness slipping away. She was exhausted, and it took all she had to hold onto Sagira. She felt arms wrap around her and her fall slowing down. She tried to keep her eyes open, and through blurred vision she saw she was moving upwards, and felt the slight tremor when Osiris landed on the ground. She felt herself being handed over to someone else, and found herself sighing in relief as a familiar light suddenly graced her body. Her ghost was healing her, and Gale had thrown down a healing rift, restoring a bit of her energy.

    “Sagira… Gale where’s…?” Sarah started to ask as her vision began to clear. She could now see she was being carried by Alexander, and he was kneeling down to the healing rift.  She could see Sagira in her hands, barely holding together. When she looked around, she could see she was surrounded by Ash, Cid, Osiris, and when she glanced up she could see Gale kneel beside them with Sagira’s repaired shell in her hands. Sarah could feel the ghost drifting towards it, and finally let her go. They all watched as the little light seeped into the shell, and the eye of the ghost flicker on. Sagira looked around for a moment, before setting her eye on Osiris.

    “Osiris… is that… really you…?” Sagira quietly asked as she floated towards him. Osiris quietly reached up to his helm and took it off. He really was an old man, bald with a white beard, and his eyes were so gentle as he reached for his Ghost.

    “It’s me Sagira.” He replied gently, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner.”

    Sagira shook her shell a little and flew up to Osiris to nudge his face. Sarah found herself weakly smiling as she watched Osiris hold her in his hands, just simply happy she was alive. He was human, just as Sarah thought he was. He was a Guardian. Guardians mess up. Guardians fall down sometimes. Now the mistake was fixed, the two were reunited, and Sarah couldn’t be happier.

    “Alex, can you help me up please?” Sarah asked quietly. The Titan gave a nod and lifted Sarah up and gently placed her feet on the ground. She seemed steady, but he had his hands ready to catch her, just in case. Osiris stood up as well as Sagira floated over to Sarah.

    “I’m still having a hard time believing it!” Sagira chimed, “You did it! You all did it! Sarah, how did you guys get past the gate?”

    “Now that’s a very good question.” Osiris raised a brow and looked at everyone, “Along with the many others I have for you people.”

    “Well, we had a little help with that.” Sarah looked around a bit before looking right at Osiris. “I know it’s been a long time, but if you remember Ikora…”

    Osiris’ eyes lit up a little, “Ikora…? She managed to break the code to get into the gate?”

    “Not exactly.” Sarah smiled a little, “You missed a lot while you’ve been gone. Your student’s become the master, and she’s changed quite a bit. She managed to use Void Light to tear open that barrier and let us through.”

    Osiris let out a bit of a laugh, “Ah, I have missed a lot, haven’t I? I’ll admit, I’ve missed having her around.” He then turned to the two Warlocks who were taking off their helms. At this point, no one bothered to wear their masks or helms, letting each other see their faces. Osiris was smiling when he said, “And you two! A Stormcaller and a Dawnblade! Where did you both learn that?”

    “Um… self taught sir…” Gale nervously replied.

    “Please, just Osiris. You are no fledgling, and you’ve helped to bring Sagira back. We are allies, perhaps even friends now.”

    Gale smiled a little more along with Cid, “Ok Osiris.”

    “Self taught… hahaha… I thought I was the last Dawnblade as so many switched to Sunsinger.” Osiris was grinning ear to ear as he looked at Cid, “If you’d like, I can show you a few tricks to improve your flight some time.”

    Cid nodded, “I’d like that.”

    “Speaking of flight, what the hell were you two thinking?!” Sarah suddenly started to yell at them. Ash and Alexander let out a sigh as both Warlocks put their hands up to try and calm the Hunter down, “You two just ran at Panoptes and used up so much Light, what if he had just dropped you instead of blasting you onto that platform?! Do you two realize what could’ve happened?!”

    “Alright mama bear, calm down.” Ash sighed and patted Sarah’s shoulder, “You have no room to talk. You dove into the explosion to save Sagira. We thought for a second we weren’t getting you back.”

    When Ash mentioned that, Sarah immediately stopped yelling and instead folded her arms.

    “I’ve also never seen a hunter that can deploy such a powerful shot from that Golden Gun.” Osiris looked at Ash, then looked up at Alexander, “And it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a Sunbreaker with the city.”

    “Well…” Ghost translated, “…apparently it’s been a long time in general for a new Sunbreaker.”

    Osiris tilted his head slightly at the odd voice, but then decided not to question it. “You really do look like him, and perhaps you’re even developing into him.”

    “Into who?” Sarah asked.

    “Saint-14: one of the greatest Titans I’ve ever seen. He was an EXO, like you.”

    “Oh… wow…” Alexander seemed surprised. He knew who Saint-14 was, and to be compared to him… what an honor.

    “I… thank you.” Ghost translated for his Guardian.

    “One more question, Sarah…” Sagira spoke up and floated over to her, “I… I saw what happened… that was cruel. And, I know how tempting it must’ve been to take Panoptes offer. I know that was also partly my fault, and I’m sorry. But I need to ask, why did you reject that offer? Other than, you know, the world ending and stuff. Don’t you still miss Cilka?”

    Sarah looked down a bit sadly, “I do Sagira. I’m always going to miss her. But…” she smiled a little and looked over to the four friends who carried her through this, “I have another family now. I can’t let this one down either.”

    Ash’s face let right up hearing that. After all of that struggling with the past, Sarah was finally starting to let it go. She smiled so bright and ran up to wrap her arms around Sarah. She seemed a bit surprised at the notion, but was even more surprised when Gale ran up and joined in on the hug. Alexander wrapped his arms around them, and even Cid walked up to join their little hug. Sarah suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed. She could feel so much love all around her, love she knew was there, but now she could feel it.

    “Wait, oh my light, are you crying?!” Ash asked as she pulled away a little.

    “No!” Sarah protested as she reached up and rubbed her eyes, “Something got in my eye!”

    They began to laugh, letting Sarah go and letting her recompose herself. Her hhost nuzzled her cheek, and Sarah smiled a little at the touch.

    “You’ve been awesome.” Sarah told her, “And I… I’m really sorry.” Sarah turned her head to look at her ghost, “I promise I didn’t want to replace you or anything like that.”

    “I know.” Her ghost nodded, “I know you care about me.”

    “I know I don’t really show it at times, and I’m sorry. I’ll try to be better.”

     She seemed to light right up, “That’s all I can ever ask for.”

    There was a groan throughout the entire place, and everyone looked up and around.

    “Um, we should probably get out of here before this simulation collapses.” Sagira chimed.

    “Yes, we should move, quickly.” Osiris nodded, “Come with me everyone. I know a passage back to Mercury. And when we get there, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to see Ikora again.”

    “Of course.” Sarah nodded, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

* * * *

    Ikora found herself restless waiting out there. She hadn’t heard anything from beyond that gate, no sign of life, no sounds, nothing. Nerves had been bundling up for the last little while, wondering and waiting for any sort of news. Was Panoptes no more? Were they doomed? Did someone perish in there?

    She let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding when Sarah was the first to walk out of that gate. She felt even more relief seeing her smiling, and watched as one by one, all five Guardians she sent inside walked out unharmed. They came to stand beside her, Gale putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her a little. It was clear Ikora had been worried the entire time.

    Ikora then saw a face she hadn’t in a long time. Appearance wise, Osiris hadn’t changed at all. She recognized her mentor along with Sagira floating right by his head. What had changed was a gentleness in his eyes now, humbled and changed by everything he had seen in the Infinite Forest. He smiled at his former student, and the corners of Ikora’s mouth turned upwards as well.

   “The Vex Mind is destroyed, and the path to their dark future is gone with it.” Osiris started, trying to reassure her before anything else.

    “And before you ask,” Sagira floated up to Ikora, “These Guardians here were amazing! They seriously deserve cake or something for all they did in there.”

    “I’m sure they do.” Ikora smiled back at Sagira, then turned to Osiris, “It’s been a very long time, hasn’t it?”

    “Too long my…” Osiris paused, then let out a laugh, “I almost called you ‘my student’ but… ah, that title is far too small for you now.”

    “I’ve had many other teachers. Time, pain…” Ikora turned towards everyone else, “Guardians who make a habit of doing the impossible.”

    “They sure seem to. If it hadn’t been for them, if it hadn’t been for Sarah’s diligent efforts, we would have perished.”

    “Hey, these guys deserve a lot of credit too.” Sarah spoke up and motioned to everyone else, “I wouldn’t have done any of this without these guys.”

    “Of course.” Osiris nodded.

    “You did do a lot of work though.” Gale added, “Don’t forget that either.”

    Ikora laughed a little, “Considering you ran around for three or four days straight with little sleep, I certainly think you deserve some credit.”

    “Ah, to be young again…” Osiris sighed with a smile.

    “Young? Oh no, I was around when you were the Vanguard. You have no excuse old man.” Sarah told him with her hands on her hips. Osiris laughed again.

    “My how things have changed.”

    “So has the city.” Ikora quietly said and turned back towards him, “You could come back with me…”

    Osiris sadly shook his head, “My place is here now. We stopped the Vex this time, but many equations lead to the same solution. We’ve dealt with the most immediate problem, but given time, they will find a new way to get to where they want.”

    “And the next time they do, I’ll be back to remind them why their first one failed.” Sarah told him. He smiled even more hearing that.

    “You know Sarah, I predicted many things, but I never predicted you! You and your family here have given us a future!” his tone turned a bit more gentle, “I’ve always thought the goal of being a parent was to give children a bright future. You’ve done more than that. You’ve given every living thing that future. In that way, I believe you succeeded.”

    Sarah gave a nod, “Even if she’s not here, I’ve given others a chance… I think that’s good enough for me.”

    “The pathway to the Forest will always be open to all of you if you ever need to find me,” he turned to Ikora, “or if you want to talk.”

    “I’d like that.” Ikora smiled at him.

    “Great! Galaxy saved, friends again, our big hero over here, and by the way, you’re welcome!” Sagira chimed. Osiris laughed a little.

    “Come little light. We have infinite realities to explore, and all the time in the world.” Osiris waved her over to the Infinite Forest. Sarah looked at Ikora, who seemed a bit pensive about something.

    “Go on.” She said, “You might not get another chance.”

    “Osiris!” Ikora called and started to run up after him. He stopped before the gateway and turned around to see her. Before he could ask, she suddenly had her arms wrapped around him. He seemed a bit surprised at first, but he gently smiled and hugged her in return.

    “I’ll be back one day. The day that the Vex no longer use this forest to determine their future, I will come back to fight another front.” Osiris told her as the two pulled apart.

    “I look forward to that.”

    And Ikora would wait and work for that day, no matter how long it took. For she cared and loved for her old mentor, just as Sarah thought.

    “Hey Sarah!” Sagira shouted suddenly. The Hunter looked up a little to see her, “Take care of yourself! Seriously! The rest of you better take care of her too!”

    Sarah nodded a little, “I’ll try to be better, I promise.”

    “Trust me!” Ash shouted, “I’ll make sure she’s ok!”

    “Good luck in there! If you need us, you know where to call!” Gale waved at them.

    “See you around Osiris.” Cid waved at him, “I might be back to take you up on that offer.”

    “Take care of yourselves!” Ghost translated for Alexander.

    With that, Osiris slipped back into the Forest again. Ikora planned on telling the truth (somewhat) to everyone on what happened here, but for now, the six of them all decided they simply wanted to go home for a while.


	10. A Blooming Flower

    The tower was full of excited and whispering voices the next day, and Sarah naturally didn’t want to hear it. She decided it was much better to stay in her room and perhaps read up on something instead of going out there and facing crowds. Her ghost did get a copy of an old Golden Age novel for her to read, even though she wasn’t a big fan of reading. It was interesting at least, reading tales of a life during that time.

    “Hey, you ever wanted a name?” Sarah suddenly asked. Her ghost perked up from the pillow she was resting on. She noticed Sarah was wearing casual clothes, and there wasn’t a speck of red on them. She had not put the Red X on her face, not bothered to do her makeup, she just sat in a pair of jeans and a white knit sweater with a collar that was far too wide for her shoulders. One shoulder was bare, while the other was covered. She seemed the most calm and content she had been in some time.

    “A name?” she asked, “W-Well… yes. I always did want one. I never could think of one for myself.”

    Sarah put the book down and leaned back a little, “Hm… what to name you…?”

    Sarah’s ghost floated up a little towards her, “Can I ask what brought this on?”

    “Other ghosts have a name, don’t they? I thought you’d like one too. And I uh… still feel like an ass about… a lot of things so… this is partially trying to make up for a bit of it.”

    Her ghost shook her shell, “You don’t need to do that.”

    “But I want to.” Sarah looked up at her, tilting her head slightly. She was thinking for a moment before the name came out.

    “How about Kiki?” Sarah asked, “Kind of suits you.”

    “Kiki…” her ghost looked down a bit and then seemed to lit right up, spinning her shell in joy, “I like it! Kiki! It has a ring to it!”

    “Well, then Kiki you are from now on.” Sarah smiled at her. She then whirled around when she heard a knock at the door. She wasn’t expecting company, but she knew the familiar light that was outside of her door.

    “It’s open!” Sarah called. She shifted on the bed so her feet were hanging over the mattress. Ash opened the door, holding some sort of tablet in her arms. Kiki floated up and pushed the door shut behind her. As soon as she saw the serious look on Ash’s face, Sarah frowned a little.

    “Hey…” Ash greeted, seeming a bit nervous.

    “Is everything ok?” Sarah asked as she stood up and walked towards her.

    “Yeah, I’m fine.” Ash looked up at her, “Remember though when I said I wanted to talk with you?”

    Sarah nodded and motioned for her to sit down on the bed. The two sat down, Ash keeping her eyes on the floor and Sarah giving her full attention.

    “What’s wrong?” Sarah asked. Kiki floated over her shoulder, just as worried.

    “Nothing’s wrong.” Ash shook her head as she looked down at that tablet. Sarah deserved to know what happened to her daughter, but she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Ash looked up at her, trying not to bite her lower lip, “It’s just… I’ve been… searching. And well… I…”

    Sarah placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to encourage the other to speak.

    “…I found… I found out what happened to your daughter.”

    Sarah’s eyes grew wide hearing that. Ash handed her the electronic tablet, open to the first file that was ever made for Cilka Navarra. Sarah nervously looked down and started to read it. She felt the entire world stop when she saw that it was a letter for her to be put in an orphanage.

    “She… she lived…” Sarah’s voice quivered as she raised a hand to her mouth.

    Ash gave a nod, “There’s more, a lot more. I dug up everything I could. She was a good woman, a hero, like her mom. She wrote to you, you know, even though you weren’t there. She had a good life.”

    Sarah had her eyes glued to the words. The next document had a photo of her, and tears began to well up in her eyes. There were documented drawings, letters to Sarah, yearbook photos, photos of her and the woman who helped raise her, a graduation photo, an army photo, a marriage photo with a beautiful bride, more letters to her, and at the very end, a death certificate. She lived to be 120 years old. All this time, her baby girl had been alive…

    “You wouldn’t have found her. The city is too large, you thought her dead. Don’t blame yourself.” Ash spoke up as Sarah read along. Sarah stopped and looked up at Ash, who was sitting there quietly with her head bowed a bit. Ash didn’t need to look up at Sarah to know she was crying. Who wouldn’t be after getting such news?

    Suddenly Ash felt Sarah pull her into a tight hug. She felt tears staining her shirt as she reached up to hug Sarah back. Ash lowered her head a little and let Sarah cry. After all of these years, all of that uncertainty, Sarah now held the answers in her hand.

    “Thank you.” Sarah sobbed out, “Thank you…. Ash… thank you…!”

    Ash just nodded and smiled a little, “Of course…”

    Kiki gently nudged Sarah’s cheek as she cried. Sarah felt so much in that moment. She was a bit sad that her daughter was dead, sad she didn’t see so much of her life, but she was, more than anything, overjoyed, relieved, that she lived back then when she made the leap. Someone had found her and taken her to the city where she bloomed into a beautiful woman. She was so proud of all her daughter accomplished, and she had found happiness in her life. She was even happier she now knew all of this, knew her daughter never forgot her, and all of those years out in the wilds? She was protecting her daughter the entire time, and didn’t even know it. That made it not such a waste. She was ashamed that she fell so low now, when her daughter had needed her.

    But it was over now. Cilka was buried with a smile within the city, and she could even go visit her. Sagira was right, she would’ve been proud to see all her mother had done.

    She didn’t really know how long she sat there and cried into Ash’s shoulder. Perhaps it was a bit longer than what the Hunter would’ve really like, but Ash stayed there patiently until Sarah finally let her go. Ash gave her a small smile to try and cheer up a bit as Sarah dried her tears.

    “Do you feel better now?” Ash asked, “Now that you know?”

    Sarah nodded as she sniffled and worked on drying her tears, “… she lived. I didn’t fail her back then.”

    “No, you didn’t. You pulled off a miracle and saved her.”

    Ikora had said Sarah made a habit of doing the impossible. Perhaps now the hunter could see the truth in it. Against all of the odds, she survived. She wasn’t surviving anymore though. She was living. She was alive. She did so much, and now that she knew her greatest failure was really her success, she felt… at peace now. She felt like that weight had finally been severed from her, and she could be free.

    “I want to visit her later.” Sarah seemed to finally compose herself, wiping her eyes one last time, “I… I need to see her grave. I need to tell her so much…”

    Ash nodded, “We’ll make it happen. Gale still has access to the city. We’ll go when you’re ready.”    

    Sarah nodded, then reached over to pull Ash into another hug, “Thank you. Thank you so much for doing this for me. I should’ve done it myself instead of moping…”

    “It’s fine Sarah…” Ash smiled up at her, “I’m just glad I did find something on her.”

    “I can’t thank you enough for showing me this.” Sarah pulled away. “I-I don’t…”

    “Hey, it’s ok.” Ash assured her, “Do you want me to leave you alone for a bit so you can get your bearings?”

    Sarah nodded. Ash stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Sarah with the tablet. When the door closed, Sarah picked it up and read everything again, from start to finish, everything Ash had found. She couldn’t stop smiling as she watched her little girl grow up in those documents, seeing her grow into a strong woman who defended the wall from the Fallen. Even in her old age, Cilka did so much, and Sarah couldn’t be more proud. She hugged the tablet and looked to the ceiling with a smile.

    “I’m so proud of you baby girl…” she whispered into the air.

* * * *

    The next day, Sarah poured the whiskey from her flask down the drain. She threw out that red paint, and decided that she would no longer wear the colour of blood on her clothes. With Kiki by her side, she threw open her door and welcomed a new day with open arms. She walked out into the wall, and watched the people bustle by. Saladin was still doing his Iron Banner, and she heard he had new gear for it. She would take it, but instead of making it red, she would make it black, fitting for a Nightstalker, fitting for a Huntress.

    She walked out into the courtyard and looked up at the Traveler. It still was in pieces, still doing nothing else up there. She didn’t need some giant ball in the sky though. She could make things happen on her own.

   “Yo! Miss big hero over here!” a familiar voice called. When Sarah turned around she saw Cayde walking up to her. Sarah raised a brow.

    “I take it as you heard what happened?” Sarah asked.

    “Yep! Though it took a while to get the whole story.” Cayde waved her over, “Come on, you deserve some loot for what you did.”

    Sarah and Kiki looked at each other for a moment before following him into the hangar. She could sense Alexander’s presence here, and could hear Amanda instructing him on something or other. Cayde walked up to a small box he had tucked in the corner and opened it up. Inside was a pair of thick pants with a pouch on the side.

    “What’s this?” Sarah asked with a raised brow.

    “Touch it, you might notice something.”

    Sarah leaned over and did touch it. Much to her surprise, it seemed to resonate, and the pouch filled up with arrows.

    “The Orpheus Rig.” Cayde explained, “An old Nightstalker made it a long time ago. Every time you tether something with your arrow, it gives you energy back. The more you grab, the more energy you get back.”

    “Holy shit…!” Sarah pulled them out of the box, “So in theory, I could keep firing arrows.”

    “Yep. You my friend have just become just that more powerful. You’re welcome by the way. I was holding onto these until I found someone who would make the most use out of em. Guess I found her.”

    Sarah folded them up along with the boots and gave them to her ghost to put into transmat. She then turned to Cayde with a smile, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank you Cayde.”

    “Hey don’t sweat it. I’m glad it’s found a good home now. You deserve a nice toy like that.”

    Sarah waved goodbye to him and wandered over to the Bazar where Ikora was. The Warlock Vanguard seemed at peace now, happy that her own old demons were put to rest. She turned around when she heard Sarah coming and seemed a bit surprised.

    “Sarah? I almost didn’t recognize you.” Ikora raised a brow at her.

    “Why do you say that?” Sarah asked as she tilted her head.

    “Well, for one thing, you don’t have your facepaint on. For another you seem… better. You seem like a weight’s been lifted off your shoulders. You look great.”

    Sarah laughed a little, “Ikora, this is the best I’ve felt in a long time.”

     “I can tell.” Ikora smiled at her before turning to the desk behind her and lifting up a scout rifle. She handed over the Nameless Midnight to Sarah, “Zavala gave me an earful about Mercury, but he agreed that you should have this.

    “Thank you Ikora.” Sarah took the gun out of her hands and gave it to her ghost. She would have to try it out soon.

    “There’s more.”

    “More?” Sarah raised a brow.

    “While Osiris may be the protector of the Forest, as far as the Vanguard are concerned, Mercury and everything on it is your territory.”

    “Wait a minute.” Sarah looked at her in confusion, “What does that mean?”

    “It means that whatever operations go on in Mercury, they have to go through you first. You and your friends decide what will happen on Mercury, who’s allowed to go there, everything. It’s all up to you.”

    “So if I really wanted to, I could even kick the Followers out of the Lighthouse. I’m basically a landlady of an entire planet.”

    “When you put it that way, essentially yes.”

    Kiki and Sarah looked at each other in surprise, “Well you might as well allow patrols then obviously. I’ll take it as Osiris is going to keep in contact with you.”

    “He is. He’ll let us know if he needs anything.”

    “Alright. Well, he might as well open the channel to me as well.”

    “There is one last thing.” Ikora smiled a little more as she said that.

    “One last thing?” Kiki asked, “What more are you giving us?”

    Ikora motioned them to follow. Through the bazaar and down some stairs, through some halls Sarah hadn’t been allowed through before, they came to a massive storage bay. There were many things here, still being sort and put away, but the one thing that caught her eye was the ships. There was one covered in a tarp, and Ikora walked over to one of the people and whispered something to them. Sarah and Kiki looked at each other before looking back up. They heard the sound of ropes being cut and watched as the tarp was pulled away, revealing the beauty that was that ship. Sarah stared at the spikes on the front, her eyes trailing all the way back to the twin thrusters. This thing was meant for speed and power. Amanda would’ve been gushing all over this ship.

    “When I was young, I once used this ship to cross the Solar System. Since then I’ve taken a more humble one,” Ikora then turned to Sarah, “She’s been sitting here for a long time. I think she would be far happier flying with you.”

    “I… I don’t know what to say.” Sarah responded as she stared at it. In all her years, she never had something nearly as nice as this.

    “What she means to say is Thank you Ikora, for everything.” Kiki responded.

    “No, thank you.” Ikora smiled at them.

    They opened up the storage bays as Sarah climbed into the pilot’s seat. All the controls were the same, but she could feel how well taken care of this was. The ship started right up on the first try, and when the man flagged her to head out, she shoved it into gear and felt herself pushed back into the seat as it took off in an instant and was now in the skies above the city.

    “Oh my Light!” Kiki squealed, “This is awesome!”

    “Be careful with her.” Ikora radioed, “I have many fond memories of her.”

    “Believe me, I’ll take good care of her.” Sarah told her as she flew above the city. She took the ship for a loop around the traveler, looking down at all of the people who didn’t know the edge they nearly fell off of. She couldn’t help but smile as she flew about, having the most fun she ever had in so long.

    As she came back around to the hangars, she could sense very familiar lights nearby. Once one of the landing bays were clear, she took it in for a landing. Once the engine was shut off, she could already hear the excited commotion. As she opened the hatch, she could hear Amanda gushing over the ship, and Cayde being confused.

    “Waitwaitwait Ikora gave that to you?!” Cayde asked. Sarah looked down to see him, Amanda, and her four close friends all there.

    “Apparently, yeah.” Sarah replied.

    “I’ve been after that thing for years!”

    “She probably didn’t give it to ya because you’d just break it.” Amanda rolled her eyes, “That beauty needs someone who will care for her.”

    Sarah slipped down the side of the ship and landed gracefully on the floor. She could see Ash grinning ear to ear, and everyone else seemed to be a good mood too.

    “Sarah, if you don’t mind me saying,” Gale spoke up, “You look great. You look like you’re happy.”

    “Yeah!” Ghost chirped as Alexander gave a thumbs up , “And we’re real happy you’re finally happy!”

    Sarah smiled a bit, “Believe me, this is the best I’ve been in a long time. Gale, do you still have access to the city?”

    “Yes? Why?” Gale tilted her head.

    “I need to see someone.”

* * * *

    The graveyard was quiet. The sun shone gently on the gravestones that had been tended to with care. There, buried beside a woman named Illia Ostar, was Cilka’s name. It had been some time since the grave was visited it seemed, as no flowers were laid there in front of it. Being here gave Sarah a strange sense of calmness. Even though her daughter wasn’t here in body, she seemed to be here presence, just like Terra was back at the lake. There was no spirit here however, but Sarah  felt it all the same. Behind her, all four of her friends had come with her to this grave, and they stood silently a distance away, letting Sarah be alone in this intimate moment.

   “Hey baby girl…” Sarah said as she sat down in front of the grave, placing a white daisy on top, “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? You haven’t seen me since you were two. Sorry it took so long to find you.”

    The wind blew through the air and Ash found her throat tightening. This was one of those moments where it was rather sad, but it felt right. Cid glanced up at the sky, wondering for a moment if her daughter was really around. He saw nothing though, but there was a small tingle of light he couldn’t quite place in the air. Perhaps she was, and this was the last remnants of her before she allowed herself to scatter to the winds.

    “I’ve read about the things you’ve done.” Sarah continued, “How you grew up, your grades, your letters, how you ended up protecting that wall. I was fighting alongside you girl, and I didn’t even realize. I read about how you did well, and how you found love. Illia sounds like such a nice girl, and I’m sure she was grateful to have you in her life.”

   Gale raised her hands up to her chest and clasped them together. That little girl she saw in her dreams must be so happy now. Her mother found her at last, even if it was a little late. Alexander certainly felt empathy for Sarah, especially after Terra. It was hard losing someone you loved that much, but it seemed that her heart was finally at ease.

   “I’m so proud of you, you know? I wish I could’ve been there to see it all, and perhaps if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own grief, I just might have. I’m sorry. I’m glad though that you got to live this long life, got to see the sun one more time after I died. I’m going to be better now Cilka. Momma’s going to make herself better, make herself more that what she is now. Momma’s not going to hurt herself anymore or drink herself all the time. I’ll be better. I’ll be the person I need to be.”

   Sarah started to stand up slowly, looking around all of the other graves. Most of them seemed like they hadn’t been touched nor seen in so long.

   “I’ll be back as much as I can Cilka. Mommy still loves you. I always will.”

   The wind blew by them again, a gentle, calm wind. Sarah smiled a little feeling it. Perhaps that was her daughter in that wind. Most likely not, but she liked to think so. She turned around to the people who came with her.

   “I’m ok.” She answered their unasked question, “I think I’m ready to go home now.”

   Ash nodded, then waved at the grave, “Bye Cilka! Wish I could’ve met you!”

  “Perhaps you may come back as a Guardian. We’ll look forward to that.” Gale smiled and bowed her head a little at her.

   “See you on the other side.” Cid quietly said as the wind blew through.

   “I hope you’re doing well, wherever you are. Goodbye Cilka.” Ghost translated.

   They all walked away from her grave, and Sarah walked away from her past at long last. It would be easier for her to quit her vice, but it would still take time to break some old habits of hers. There was no denying however, the Hunter had changed, and changed for the better.


End file.
